


Fusion Confusion

by Amaranthkick



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Insecure Lance (Voltron), M/M, body swap shenanigans, can be platonic or preslash, fusion au, like literal fusion between two characters, sniper and other hidden skills lance, supportive lance, supportive shiro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2018-12-05 12:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11577762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaranthkick/pseuds/Amaranthkick
Summary: Lance was insecure about the skills he can offer for his team. Shiro overheard and came up with a plan to help prove to the blue paladin that he was stronger than he thought. He just didn't expect the turn this mission was going to take.





	1. Chapter 1

Lance and Keith had a fight. Angry words were spilled and feelings were hurt.

That lead to Lance storming out the castle to the cliff edge overlooking the majestic ocean.

Ugh! Keith was always so strict and focused on fighting this war and completing missions. He didn’t like Lance ‘fooling around’ on missions. It caused friction between the two of them. Not everyone handled stress like he did. Lance needed to joke, needed the mood to be light and not so serious all the time. The pressure would crush him. Not everyone was born for war. Not everyone was perfect and amazing at everything like him.

Lance knew he was just getting angry and that Keith was just being himself trying to get things done in an efficient manner. He needed and outlet. Thankfully something that used to help him on Earth, was also present on this planet: the ocean.

Their fight caused his insecurities to surface again after he just managed to push them down.

So he indulged his emotions acknowledging them by yelling about them to the ocean til his throat was sore and tears were streaming down his face.

_I am trying my hardest out here!_

_No one understands being in someone’s shadow for so long!_

_I don’t have a thing that makes me stand out!_

_How come I’m never good enough!?_

He panted out of breath. The hurt was still in his chest like deep wounds raked into him with deadly claws. Lance squeezed his eyes shut and kicked a rock down into the ocean.

Lance could feel Blue purring worriedly through their bond. He berated himself for making her worry and tried to reassure her he was fine. He turned and walked slowly back to the castle. Lance was going to spend the rest of the day inside Blue taking a nap preferably. When he’s calmed down then he’ll go talk with and apologise to Keith.

He didn’t notice Shiro hiding behind nearby foliage. The black paladin went out and followed him just wanting to make sure he was alright. His face was crestfallen having heard every emotionally-packed word.

* * *

The castle warped to the planet Egreter, that has sent out a recent distress signal. They weren’t attacked by the Galra luckily but the city had been harassed by bandits recently.

The Egretians didn’t ask for help to try and look for the bandits. They already had people trying to investigate and instead wanted help to fix the any damage done around the city. Shiro and Allura had a meeting with their leader and offered any aid that they were willing to accept to help find them.

While waiting for new mission the paladins explored the city.

Hunk and Pidge were interested in their technology. The two paladins learned that most of it was powered by the green crystals they would see attached somewhere on the machine. There was a mine quite a ways from the city that held a large source of the crystals.

Keith was surveying the town, looking for what was damaged and trying to spot suspicious activity. He helped any civilian who asked the red paladin for help.

Lance found an awesome zoo. The caretaker was very knowledgeable of the different species on their planet. From the tiniest beady-eyed winged dog-like creatures to the more ferocious ‘kings of the jungle’ creatures. They looked so cool.

She even gave him some herbs that they used to capture the creatures thinking that the brave paladin would want a shot to fight a mighty beast. He tried to kindly refuse but she already shoved it into his unwilling hands.

The paladins rushed back to the open fountain in the middle of the city when Shiro called for them on their coms.

Allura explained that the leader of Egreter would allow the paladins to aid in the investigations if they showed helped the townspeople first. He wanted to wait til the soldier scouts reported back then would decide how to proceed. There however, was one secret request from the guard captain himself though, it was to check on the mine to see the state of the green power crystals that filled it. There were reports lately that suspicious figures were heading in and out of there. His soldiers were spread thin what with protecting the city and searching for the suspects. He said it wasn’t necessarily part of the investigation but they could use the opportunity to look around.

“Shiro and Lance will be the ones to go on the mission to check on the mine. The guard captain also asked to keep an eye out for his recruits who were sent to scour the nearby area. He said that they haven’t come back yet.” Lance and Shiro nodded with a ‘yes princess’ then headed towards the mine.

Allura turned to the three remaining paladins. “We will aid anyone in need here in town although keep an eye out for suspicious activity in case the bandits are hidden here in town.”

As the team nodded in affirmation, she glanced at the two heading towards the path in the forest that led to the mine. For some reason Shiro insisted on going on this mission and taking Lance with him.

—

Lance needed to see for himself the talents he brings to the table. But he couldn’t do that while playing support where he was looking at everyone else. That was when an idea struck him.

“Lance, I’ll let you be in charge of this mission.”

“Me!? Why? Are you sure?”

When Shiro nodded, Lance stroked his chin deep in thought. Why would Shiro let him lead a mission?

Hmm… Ah! Sometimes there were things you miss out if you’re always in the front. Shiro probably wanted a new perspective and he could probably see more bigger pictures if he was in a supporting role. He could pick up where Lance slacked off. Very smart. Even if he wasn’t going to be in charge he was a good leader. Lance nodded to himself thinking his logic was perfectly sound. “Ok, let’s do this.”

Lance walked ahead of Shiro taking in his surroundings. The bark of the trees around the dirt path were a sickly bluish color which could have been concerning if that wasn’t normal for this planet. Their leaves though, were a vibrant chartreuse. It was almost like they glowed when the sun hit them.

Lance could see a hill rising up along the left side of the path. It didn’t have a smooth slope but instead had rough edges jutting out almost like a cliffside He squinted his eyes when something glimmered near the center of the side facing the path. It was similar to how sunlight would reflect off a shiny or metallic surface. As suddenly as it appeared it vanished.

Lance stopped in his tracks. He could have sworn he saw something move. The hairs on his neck stood on end. His gut was telling him something’s wrong. Just like back when he took one last look at the fake Rover.

Shiro also stopped walking in time with Lance. He tilted his head confused, he didn’t notice anything. “Lance?”

Lance gasped when there was a small flash of light. He could tell it was the same kind of flash as whenever he fired his bayard. Something was firing at them!

“Shiro, get down!” The black paladin ducked just in time for a shot to whiz by the top of his helmet narrowly missing him and blasted a spot on the ground.

Lance formed his laser gun and carefully aimed at the spot where the flash came from and fired a shot. He preened when he hit something, a trail of black smoke marked its location and there was no more laser fire.

“Let’s go check it out!” Lance started heading towards the source of the smoke gesturing for Shiro to follow him. He got his jet back ready to jump up the hill using the little ledges as footing.

Shiro tensed his jaw to keep from gaping in wonder. Not only did Lance take just one shot but also it seemed like it only took a second for him to figure out where to return fire. It only fired at them once, how’d he shoot it down so accurately?

It was quite a ways from the beaten path but they found the source of the smoke: a stationary turret with its muzzle blown off by Lance. The turret must have some targeting system programmed to attack anyone going to the mine.

But this was worrying, no one mentioned any security system. The bandits were most likely behind this. Luckily though, it must have been set up recently as there were hardly any reports of injuries from this thing.

From up there they got a good view of the entrance to the mine. It was closer than Lance thought which was nice, it seemed as if they were walking for a long time.

“Oh? Shiro do you see that?” There was a tiny bit of red amidst the yellow-green foliage. Shiro strained his eyes to see what it was. It moved a minute later revealing the one of the Egretians presumably a guard judging from the red uniform he was clad in. He looked around for threats then when the coast was clear promptly went back into hiding.

Lance and Shiro nodded to each other and headed towards the guard. Lance called out to him so that he wouldn’t think they were sneaking up on him and attack on sight. The guy was with two other scouts. They were sleeping to recover from their wounds they had gotten from the turret.

“We were trying to keep a watch on the mine but as soon as we got near…”

“Something fired at you, right?” Lance completed to which the guard nodded.

The guard looked over them and noticed they didn’t have any scorch marks on their persons. He questioned, “How did you get here unscathed? Just peeking out a nudge too much from our hiding spot would attract laser fire to us.”

“Lance here, managed to shoot a stationary turret down at an impressive range.” Shiro gestured to Lance smiling when the sharpshooter puffed his chest out in pride at the compliment.

“We’re paladins of Voltron. Your captain’s worried about you though. You want us to help you and your teammates get back?” Lance offered out his hand to the guard.

He kindly refused with a warm smile. “Thank you for your kind gesture but thanks to you that turret is gone and we now have safe passage back. I’ll wait for the scouts to recover then head back with them.”

The guard pointed at the direction to the mine. “If you could, please check on the mine. We were not able to get in.”

“Of course! That’s our mission anyway. Hope your friends get well soon and stay safe.” Lance and Shiro fondly waved goodbye and headed towards the entrance.

—

The tunnel had some fixtures built into the wall to provide light. The inside cave rocks were a light blue color. There was no forks or other tunnels so they didn’t get lost. It lead them to this giant barren room.

The room was a dead end, the mine didn’t go any deeper than this. There was only blue rocks on the walls and dirt on the floor. There was not one green crystal in sight.

Lance’s face fell. They were too late, someone had managed to steal everything. He started to wander around the room trying to find any clue to go on. Something caught his eye, its color easily contrasting with its surroundings.

Lance picked up a small amber colored crystal. It was hardly as big as his fingernail. The tiny thing couldn’t have been chipped off a green crystal. Did the bandits drop this?

Shiro jogged over to Lance when he couldn’t find anything. The place was wiped clean, there wasn’t even any footprints to track. Whoever they were dealing with were really good.

Lance held out the amber crystal for Shiro to look at. “This is all I could find. Maybe someone back in town knows more about this?”

“Yeah, we should report to Allura and the guard captain about the empty mine too.” Lance put the crystal into his pocket for safe keeping. They nodded in agreement and turned to face the exit.

They tensed when there were three robot drones approaching them. The drones weren’t Galra but they didn’t seem friendly either. They raised their rifles and started going at them guns blazing.

Shiro and Lance put up their shields separating to lighten the shots they were taking.

Lance tried to shoot back but they would just block his attacks with their arms or laser guns. The only bright side was that he could distract them enough to give Shiro some breathing room to dodge or try to get closer.

He saw a laser miss Shiro and blast a hole in the wall to reveal a secret entrance. There must be more tunnels hidden here. Not that the Egretians needed to go further than this room when it was filled with green crystals.

Wait a minute, something didn’t feel right. It was as if these guys were hardly aiming for either of them like they were firing just for the sake of firing. Why?

The answer literally fell from the sky or in this case ceiling. A stalactite nearly smashed Lance into a pancake. All this blasting was causing too much vibrations. Oh no!

“Shiro! They’re trying to cause a cave in!” Lance yelled the warning for the black paladin. His eyes widened in heavy realization. This was very bad.

It went from bad to worse when the robots seemed to pick up that they understood what was happening. They started to outright fire at the ceiling. One of them blasted at the only exit causing rocks to fall and seal it up trapping all of them inside.

The cave shook violently, more and more debris fell. They were running out of time. Lance looked back at Shiro who seemed to be trying to think of a way to escape.

Ahh! Just behind him was that small opening that was revealed in the battle. It was a gigantic risk, Lance didn’t know if that tunnel would lead to another exit or was just another dead end but it was their only hope.

Their time ran out, huge chunks of rock started to fall. “Shiro, watch out!” Lance ran at full speed and all but tackled Shiro into the tunnel. They both tumbled together down a slope. Shiro clutched Lance trying to cover him with his own body. Whereas Lance tried to do the same for him.

They synced up with the desire to protect each other. Unbeknownst to them, the amber crystal started glowing in Lance’s pocket. Its power affected the both of them. The two paladins blacked out before they knew what was happening. Soon the two bodies tumbling down the cave became only one.

—

“Mmnn,” Lance groaned slowly regaining consciousness. He put his hands underneath his chest to push himself up. The cave he was in had some green crystals studded in the walls providing some light if a bit dim. But he would take it, he just needed a moment for his eyes to adjust.

Lance started to look around, dread pooling in his gut. He couldn’t find Shiro. “Shiro? Shiro…! Shiro, where are you!? Answer me please!” Lance desperately called out for him hoping he wasn’t buried under the rubble that blocked off the cave they fell through.

—

Shiro woke up feeling oddly numb. He tried to move his body but he couldn’t tell if his limbs responded. There was also a strange sensation running just on the surface of his body almost as if it was moving on its own. Sight came to him next but it was like he was seeing through someone else’s eyes which kept darting to and fro and it was making him a little dizzy. Then it felt like ice was forming on top of him, creeping all over him, surrounding him in a frozen prison of dread.

He heard Lance’s shaky voice growing more and more worried. “Shiro? Shiro…! Shiro, where are you!? Answer me please!”

“Lance?” Shiro called out wanting to reassure him that he was alright. The ice quickly melted away and took the feelings of dread with it. It was replaced with a calm, steady ocean filled with overjoyed relief.

“Shiro!? Thank goodness! Are you alright? Where are you?” Lance sounded significantly less panicked, a good sign. While Shiro didn’t know where he, himself was, what was concerning was that he couldn’t see Lance either. Not with his strange new line of sight that he couldn’t control.

“More or less. I’m not completely sure where I am though. I think I’m safely in that tunnel you pushed us into before the whole cave in.”

“Ok, that’s good? But I should be able to find you cause I’m here too, shouldn’t I? Well at least you aren’t buried under the rocks.” Lance was rambling probably to try order his thoughts and keep calm.

Lance eyed the mountain of rubble. Maybe there was another room just beyond it and Shiro was there. He lifted his right hand and placed it on the pile of rocks in front of him. “Shiro, is your path blocked by…?”

Was his gauntlet darker than usual? He took a closer look. It was black and not his usual blue!

“Shiro!?” Lance looked excitedly over his shoulder expecting to see the black paladin beside him. But his face fell when he saw that no one was there. “Shiro?”

It felt like a chilling breeze bringing fear and confusion wrapped around him. Lance tilted his head at the sudden emotions, they almost didn’t feel like his own.

Lance started gaping when he looked over his right hand. The arm clad in black paladin armor it was- it was his! It was attached to him at the shoulder as if it was always there. No, no! It was just the light, yeah, his brain playing tricks on him. That’s it.

He let out a shaky breath unsettled when he noticed his right hand felt strange. Lance slowly took off the gauntlet and slipped off the glove to check his hand. His brain sputtered to a stop. He couldn’t believe what he saw. His hand was metal, the same metal hand Shiro had and it had been clad in the black paladin armor too.

Lance stumbled back and yelled, “Shiro!! Why do I have your hand!?” He waved, curled and uncurled a fist with his metal hand to make sure it was his hand. The metal limb obeyed all his directions proving it really was in his control. It was frightening, nothing was making sense.

Shiro was shocked as well. Why did Lance blurt out that he had his hand when it was right here in front of him? It might have been moving on its own but- wait a second. A crazy thought hit him and he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to entertain it. Shiro felt numb with the realization that was happening but it left him thoroughly shocked and unable to fully process it. And yet if he accepted it then things would start to fall into place. He took a moment to ground himself then plowed ahead.

“Lance? Could you lift your hands in front of your face, palms facing you?”

“Like this?” Lance did as he was asked proving Shiro’s idea correct: that he was perhaps somehow looking through Lance’s eyes or Lance was in control of his body? Maybe? Everything was so confusing.

He told Lance of his theory and he took it as well as anyone would in this situation. Shiro felt the ocean around him shift and crash, no longer calm. The ocean must be Lance, it kinda felt like him when he concentrated on their bond in previous bonding exercises but it felt way too close now.

“W-Why? What happened? Tumbling down a cave shouldn’t do this.” Lance took in a deep breath trying to calm down, panic won’t help them. He put his right hand back in the paladin armor again. He stared at the black color then lifted his left hand. He inhaled sharply at the familiar shade of blue that stared back at him.

“Shiro, are you seeing this?” He looked over his armor. It was a mix and match of both their colors.

Shiro did see it but couldn’t quite understand what it meant. He mentally sighed, while he would’ve wanted to take the time to fully understand what happened, they were still trapped in the mine. There were also the bandits still on the loose. They had to focus, hold off on their questions for now, and push forward. “Yes, I do Lance but I don’t think we’ll get answers here. We should go.”

“Oh r-right,” Lance took a calming breath, “the bandits are getting more bold. We gotta warn the others.” He got up to look for his helmet that must’ve been knocked off during the fall when Shiro grunted an assent.

Now that he looked around, on the opposite side of the room away from the rubble the cave went on further. Oh, there was his helmet which also was a mix of black and blue. It must have rolled all the way over there.

The walls near the helmet were made of a reflective material. Lance picked up the helmet only to drop it again when he caught his reflection. His breath was stuck in his throat. The wind he felt in the back of his mind which he assumed was Shiro also abruptly stopped in shock at what looked back at them: the person in the mirror wall had a complexion closer to Lance’s, he had Shiro’s scar across the bridge of his nose, his hair was Lance’s soft chocolate brown with Shiro’s white tuft in the front, and his eyes, widened in astonishment, were blue but had slivers of silver mixed in.

Lance brought a shaky hand to his- _their_ cheek and breathed the obvious yet earth-shaking observation, “i-it’s like we fused…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read somewhere a Voltron meta that said Lance has skills that aren't as flashy as he'd want them to be like it would be hard to notice unless you're right there. 
> 
> I though being fused to him would provide a nice opportunity for someone to see his talents. 
> 
> And honestly, I just wanted a fusion fic with my two fav characters.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance was internally freaking out judging from the rough waters Shiro felt on the mental ocean. Not that he could blame him. He was deep in shock too. They- they were fused together. Just how did this happen?

They were sharing a body and it seemed like Lance was in charge of their body. Shiro could laugh right now. This was not what he expected would happen he planned to let Lance in charge of a mission.

“Lance, Lance focus. We can think about it later.” Shiro was pleased that he managed to keep his voice steady.

Lance broke out of his stupor, nodding and placed the helmet on. He tapped it several times but only blank silence reached his ears. “Lance and uh, Shiro to Allura? Hunk? Pidge? Keith? Coran? Anyone?” Noise finally came from the coms but it was only the grating sound of static.

“I think the coms might be damaged.” There was no use sticking around here. Lance took one last look at his new reflection then pressed onward through the last available path.

“Remember Lance, you’re still in charge of the mission. I suppose I can only offer verbal support now.” Shiro spoke up after a few minutes of walking. He felt a little guilty at not being able to provide proper support for this mission.

Shiro’s voice sounded worried so Lance tried to cheer him up. “Its cool, Shiro. I’m just glad you’re alright even if it’s like you’re stuck in my mind. I’ll get us back to the city and for sure someone there will know how to fix this. Don’t worry ‘bout a thing.”

Lance grinned as he felt the air get lighter, playful even. “Sure Lance, whatever you say.”

Lance kept walking, the loose gravel crunching under his feet. The tunnel continued for several more yards then makes an abrupt left turn. His breath hitched and froze when he saw movement coming from the corner of the turn.

His eyes widened as he saw a very dark blue alien spider crawling from the corner and towards them. It was the size of a fully-grown Labrador, a size no spider had any right to be. It was practically staring into his soul with its nine beady eyes. Lance shuddered at the the fur covering its body like a tarantula.

Lance gasped as something hit him like a ton of bricks. He’s seen this kind of spider before! At the zoo back in the city, it was there! The caretaker said that they can sense increased heart beats and adrenaline. They wouldn’t be able to see their prey if they stayed calm.

He grinned as a new revelation filled him with hope. Lance breathing was steady, no longer afraid. It was still creepy but less frightening now. The spider crawled past him as he didn’t register as prey to him.

As he continued walking, Shiro called out to him confused. “Lance?” The ocean waves were happy and cheerful for some reason.

Lance explained, “While you were talking with the Egretian leader with Allura, I checked out this sweet zoo. There was a spider similar to that one over there. The caretaker lady said that they caught it in the area near the mine. There wasn’t any in the mine so there must be an exit that a spider from these tunnels could slip through.”

Shiro chuckled warmly as he could feel Lance’s optimism flow through him like a revitalizing river.

Lance slightly quickened his pace all the while repressing his shudders as he crossed through the spider’s nest. Elegantly weaved webs decorated the walls and eggs were carefully set up in the corners of the room. Thankfully, the alien arachnids ignored his presence.

Lance tried to talk with to Shiro to keep his mind off them. “So, not a fan of spiders Shiro?” Lance found them creepy but he would have to get brave and get rid of them for his niece and nephew on occasion. A few of the shudders felt involuntary and he assumed they came from Shiro.

Shiro chuckled nervously, “They’re not on my favorite list, that’s for sure.”

Past the nest, the tunnels had other wildlife. Lance cooed at the docile stone gargoyle bats and the roly-poly turtles.

Soon though, the tunnel became empty as if the animals were avoiding this part of the cave system.

“Whoa.” Lance stood at an opening which was blocked by an unnatural metal surface. As he got closer he saw that there was a gap he could slip through. It was a tight squeeze but he managed. He almost stumbled but caught himself before he could make a sound.

The new room he was in was filled with multiple metal crates. Some of them were open and green crystals were piled high in them. This must be all the stolen crystals! Lance unconsciously hunched trying to look smaller as he carefully looked around for any sign of the bandits.

Lance flinched when he heard some low murmuring. He took silent steps towards the sound and kept out of sight behind the crates. Lance knelt down and delicately peeked out from behind the crate that was closest to his targets.

He gaped like a fish at two of the bandits whose forms seemed to tower over him even when they were just sitting down. There were four main bandits, the other two were more of a relatively average size. All around the open area were remains of drones and machine parts. For some reason it looked like the remains of a one-sided battle.

Near the group was a ship, maybe they landed on this planet and started to steal from and ransack the city like pirates.

The two larger bandits almost looked feral, more animal than a humanoid alien. One looked like a fierce maned gorilla with four clawed arms and the other had long strong limbs, large horns and tusks. They were aliens, so that could’ve just been their normal forms but Lance couldn’t shake the feeling that something about them seemed familiar somehow.

“Lance, look!” Shiro whispered urgently. Lance saw one of the smaller bandits got up and walked towards a pile of weapons including a large turret. His eyes widened when the guy lifted an amber crystal and it began to glow.

Lance had to cover his mouth to prevent himself from gasping out loud. The bandit fused with all of it becoming bona-fide cyborg. His form was larger to accommodate the weight of new shoulder cannons. He could form any weapon he fused with at any time.

“It was the crystal… that’s how we fused.” Shiro breathed surprised. Lance quietly dug into his pockets and pulled it out. He stared at the amber colored shard and noted that it seemed to shine a little brighter than before then put it back. When he looked at the group, he saw a small container holding several amber crystals.

Lance listened in on their conversation again. He could only pick up bits and pieces of what they were planning but it was still bad news. They wanted to use their newfound strength to conquer the city and the planet. The power must really have gotten to their heads.

The bandit with the tusks started to sniff at the air and growled. “Someone’s here…” she whispered to the others. The machine fusioned bandit nodded then supplied a small timed grenade and threw it in the direction she pointed at.

Whoa oh, their position’s been compromised. Lance kicked the grenade back at them and the timer set off an explosion in front of the bandits distracting them enough for Lance to find a new hiding spot.

Lance carefully analyzed what he was dealing with and weighed his options of whether to fight or retreat and get back up.

The fused bandits are the most biggest threats- wait! Fused? That’s it! That was why the animal bandits seemed familiar. He’s seen similar animals at the zoo. They must have found and fused with those kind of creatures. And with the knowledge he gained from the zealous caretaker he knew if he played his cards right then he would have the advantage.

Next was the machine guy, how to deal with him?

“Aaaah!” Lance shrieked as the lion gorilla easily lifted the crate he was hiding behind like it was an empty cardboard box. He gave him a cruel smirk then tossed the crate aside.

The others were closing in on him too. Oh well, he’d just think of something when the time comes.

Lance threw one of the pouches of herbs the zoo keeper gave him at the bandit’s face and before he could catch it in one of his clawed hands, Lance blasted it with his bayard. The explosion resulted in a dust cloud. It had no effect on Lance but it dulled and irritated the senses the four-armed bandit. He roared and swiped at the air not hitting anything. Lance used his bayard and blasted him square in the chest knocking him back a step.

There was a rounded blunt stalactite overhead that had a precariously skinny connection to the ceiling. Lance fired at it letting the stalactite fall. and the boulder smashed onto the bandit effectively knocking him out.

Lance used his jetpack to zip around dodging the horned bandit’s attempts at skewering him and the shots from the other bandit’s shoulder cannons.

There was some green light coming from the machine bandit’s sides. They were green crystals. Lance remembered Hunk and Pidge talking about how some of the technology of this planet ran on the green crystals as power sources. The bandits must’ve built the turret using some techniques from this planet.

Lance smirked to himself, he found a weak spot. Now he just needed to hit it.

There were more reflective spots around the cave not blocked off by crates. Lance hoped for the best and jetpack jumped up high. He carefully aimed a sweet trick shot. It ricocheted of a few reflective surfaces and hit the guy damaging the crystal. He heard Shiro say, “Nice, Lance!”

Lance aimed another trick shot to hit the crystal on the opposite side of the bandit. His movements started to get sluggish not having enough strength on his own to keep himself upright without the crystals.

Lance dodged another swing from the bandit with tusks and jumped onto the machine bandit. Lance threw another pouch at the tusked bandit. Its effects were different for this one as it made her more aggressive but much more easier to trick. He teased her, dancing on top of the machine bandit who had no energy to fight back. She charged in recklessly and crashed into her teammate while Lance escaped at the last moment with his jet pack.

This knocked the machine bandit out cold but the other was still raring to go. Lance used his jetpack to gain some distance and set up a trap with the line from the grapple shot of his gauntlet. He tripped her and she crashed hard falling unconscious.

“Lance, there’s one last bandit.” Shiro reminded. Lance looked around and saw the guy trying to escape on foot. Lance raised his bayard at him. He was an easy target. He shot at his leg preventing major injury and also preventing him from getting away. Then Lance walked up to him and hit him on the back of his head with the blunt end of his bayard.

Lance took in the moment chest out, hands on hips, and face-splitting grin when he heard Shiro compliment him. “Awesome job, Lance!”

Shiro gave him a minute then chuckled, “Heh, we still have to get these guys back to the others in the city, you know.” Lance groaned looking at all of bandits then at the ship they had.

Lance smiled as he easily dragged the bandits to the cargo hold on the ship. “Hey, Shiro? Have I ever told you how strong you are? Bet you could bench press these guys.” He was lucky this fusion gave him some of Shiro’s strength or this would have been really tedious. He laughed when he heard Shiro huff. There were ropes he used to tie the bandits’ hands. He also took with him the container filled with amber crystals. Lance piloted the ship back when shouting started to reach his ears.

The coms, they’re working again. “Guys?”

“Lance! Shiro! Finally! Are you two ok? We’ve been trying to get in contact with you for awhile.” Hunk’s worried voice chimed in.

“Uh, yeah, we’re fine. Sorry for worrying you. Anyway we caught the bandits and are heading back to you, tout suite.”

“Lance? Is that you speaking? You sound kinda funny.” Hunk asked.

“You kinda sound like Shiro.” Keith voice popped in.

Really? Lance didn’t pay that much attention to his voice. He guessed that his fused voice must have sounded somewhere in between his and Shiro’s voice.

“Uh, it’s complicated. You’ll see when we get there. Just prepare some handcuffs for the bad guys, please?” He heard Allura make a noise of assent, she was probably going to get the cuffs.

He turned off the coms so he could speak with Shiro after he said, “Really, Lance? Complicated? That’s it?”

“Well, it is! And besides it’ll be easier to explain in person. Would you have believed me if I said I fused with someone thanks to a small crystal?”

“I would have! Ok maybe I would have been a little skeptical… fine, I probably would have also needed solid proof in front of me to picture what happened.”

—

The cargo ship landed in front of the paladins. They waited for Lance and Shiro to step out the ship but only one single person came out. And to their mind-boggling surprise, the person had paladin armor of both black and blue. The person walked towards them, his physique had slightly more mass than Lance but seemed slimmer than Shiro. Everyone’s jaws dropped to the floor when he took off his helmet to reveal someone who startlingly looked like both Shiro and Lance.

“Uh… hi.” He waved sheepishly at them.


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone had shock written on their faces. They just stood there staring, the awkward silence getting heavy. Lance tried to break it chuckling weakly, “I know my good looks can stun people speechless but seriously?”

“Lance?” Hunk asked at the same time as Keith asked, “Shiro?”

“Yes, to both. And I wish I could say this isn’t what it looks like but it’s totally what it looks like.”

Pidge recovered first and rushed over to look at them closely. “Holy crow! It’s like you guys fused!”

Lance nodded. “Yup, because that is exactly what happened.”

“You were right. That does sound complicated.”

“It is Keith, it is. Well, we know that these amber crystals have something to do with it.” He lifted the container of amber crystals in from of them. “We were gonna ask someone in town if they know about it. Or maybe Coran might know something.”

Hunk leaned in close squinting at them. “That’s good but… are you Shiro or Lance,” then he gasped, “or are you some new persona born from both of them!?”

“No no, I’m Lance right now and I think Shiro is stuck in my head or is this voice in my head. But don’t worry! He’s fine, promise!” He quickly assured them when they got worried. “Maybe we could use the mind meld helmets to talk with him if you really want to.”

Allura went up to them. “If you say that both of you are fine then I’ll believe your word. We all may have questions we want to ask but Lance, you said you captured the bandits correct? We should deal with them first.”

“Oh right, nearly forgot. Oh yeah, I need to tell the guard captain where they hid all the green crystals too! Allura, there was a cave in in the original mine, will the people be alright? We need to help them find a new source of green crystals.”

Allura nodded. “Of course we’ll help, do not fret Lance. Hunk, I think this is a good job for the yellow lion. She has a connection with earth and land so it’ll be be easy for her to carve a new tunnel into the mountain side. You and Lance and Shiro will meet with the captain so that you can take him or one of his men to find the crystals then work to find the new source. Keith, Pidge, and I will also report to the captain to find if they have a prison to hold the bandits. Then I will go see the Egretian leader to discuss this matter.”

She gestured for the container he was holding and Lance gave it to her to show the leader who would hopefully know something.

Keith stared intensely at the cargo hold of the ship. “We’ll also interrogate bandits to find out what they know about the fusion crystals. We’ll find a way to get you two unfused.”

“Alright Keith, just don’t go too harsh on them. That was a message from Shiro.” They looked at Lance owlishly as he coughed, “err, anyway let’s get this show on the road.” Lance raced to the ship with everyone else closely behind.

Lance was about to start pulling away when Hunk asked him a few questions. “So what if we have to refer to both of you as in Shiro and Lance or your combined body in general? Oh! Can we call you Shance? It’s a bit easier to say than Shiro and Lance over and over.”

Lance raised an eyebrow giving him an unimpressed look. “What? It’s a good nickname.”

He didn’t feel or hear any objection at the idea from Shiro, so he shrugged. “Sure Hunk, it’s cool.”

—

Lance, Shiro, and Hunk were successful in finding a new cave full of green crystals. The Egretians would use it whenever the other supply runs out. As they returned, they were told to meet up with the rest of the team near the area they parked the castle by the princess. Allura began to update them on her end with the leader of the city.

The leader of Egreter thanked all of them and promised his full support in helping Voltron any way he could. He got his researchers to take a look at a sample amber crystal but unfortunately…

“They don’t know anything about it!?” Lance practically screeched. Then he deflated and mumbled “How are we gonna fix this?”

Allura sighed, “We interrogated the bandits in the Egretian prison but they don’t know much about it either. Just that they stole it from somewhere and it had the power to fuse things. They don’t know how to go about unfusing things either, unfortunately.”

She laid a comforting hand on Lance’s shoulder. “I’ll ask Coran to take a look to see what he knows. You’re all dismissed and free to look around the city before we head back into space as to not attract unwanted attention to this planet.”

—

Shiro could feel Keith, Hunk, and Pidge staring at them as Lance started to walk towards someplace. He said, “There’s somewhere I need to go before we leave this planet,” before walking off.

He wondered where Lance was taking them.

“So Lance? And Shiro? How does it feel to be fused?” Pidge asked.

Lance explained that felt somewhat normal like he was in control of his own body but obviously his body felt a little different. He had to relay what Shiro told him that some of his senses were really off like it was coming from far away. Shiro kind of wished he could still be heard instead of needing to have Lance be a messenger.

“When did the fusion happen?”

Lance slowed down to a stop to think back on it. “Guess it happened after the cave in way before we confronted the bandits.” He pulled out the tiny crystal in his pocket to show them. “This is the crystal that fused us. I’m pretty sure.”

He kept it out of reach when they tried to touch it. “Hey! What if it fuses you guys too!?”

Keith pulled his hand back. “Oh, didn’t think of that.”

“No worries, I’ll let you guys see it when Coran checks it out and says it’s safe.” They nodded in understanding.

“Here we are!” Lance spread out his hands gesturing to the area in front of him. From Lance’s view point it seemed like he led them to a zoo.

“Is this a zoo?” Pidge asked the question Shiro was wondering.

“Yup, ah! There she is! Lamura, hi!” He waved animatedly to her. “She’s the head caretaker of the animals here.”

Some pieces started to click together for Shiro. “Oh, she’s the one who told you about the weaknesses of the animals and about that spider we saw, wasn’t she?”

“Yup, she’s also the one who gave me those herb pouches. I gotta update her and thank her of course.” Shiro chuckled fondly when he felt Lance’s gratitude.

“Blue paladin Lance! Welcome- wait…” Lamura tilted her head very confused. He eyed the person in front of her, he definitely seemed like Lance but he looks very different for some reason. “Blue paladin Lance…?”

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, it’s really complicated but I kinda fused with the Shiro, the black paladin, so he’s kinda stuck with me at the moment. But I’m still Lance too! Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the info on some of the animals here and the herbs. … I really didn’t think they would come in handy.” Lance muttered the last part under his breath so only Shiro could hear.

The caretaker really didn’t understand the fusing part but got that she was in the presence of the black paladin somehow, as well as the rest of team Voltron. She bowed in the general direction of all the paladins. “It is an honor to have the paladins visit.”

Then she beamed at Lance. “Did you really find the herbs useful? Which wild beast did you defeat? It felt empowering didn’t it?”

Lance laughed happy to see her so excited she had a true interest in. “Well, let’s see: yes definitely, I don’t really remember their names, but yes it did feel empowering.”

Hunk leaned forward near Lance. “I thought you said you fought the bandits not animals.”

“The bandits were fused with the animals at least, two of them were. So the weakness of the animals were also their own.”

Pidge, Hunk, and Keith squinted at Shance as if to gauge any weaknesses he could have because of Shiro and Lance. Lance in turn mock pretended to cover himself from their prying eyes.

They were snapped out of it when Lamura yelled, “oh that’s right! Lance you have to visit Apre and Arry again back in the Ha’azel exhibit. There is a special surprise waiting over there. And while we’re going there you can point out which animals a brave paladin like yourself fought.”

As they were walking Keith asked, “Ha’azel exhibit?”

“It’s like their version of a petting zoo. Apre and Arry are like the size of a mountain lion, looks like one too but mixed with a Husky. They’re really friendly. Ah– that one!” Lance pointed at a gorilla-type creature that had a lion’s mane around its head and was beating it’s chest with its four arms trying to intimidate them.

Keith nodded to himself, it certainly looked like one of the bandits.

Pidge gasped excitedly, starry-eyed as Lance pointed to another animal. “That one too.” It looked like a moose-like animal version of an AT-AT Walker from Star Wars with horns and tusks. It bellowed loudly at them.

“Ahh! The Lefrarel and the Kranel! You really have very strong wits about you blue paladin. They can be difficult to deal with if you don’t know what to do. They certainly gave our guards a hard time in the past.” She seemed pleased with his achievements.

They past a gate attached to a mid-level fence. The ground was now soft dirt instead of hard stone.

Lance gasped when he heard soft growling. He went up to the two approaching creatures gleefully. “Apre! Arry! How have you two been? Hahaha, aww, I missed you too.” They purred with all their might at his pets and began licking him as if they were grooming him. It left him with multiple cowlicks.

“Shiro, these two are Apre and Arry. Apre, Arry this is Shiro." He gestured to all of himself. He started giggling when they nuzzled at his head. "Hahaha, I think they like you. Also that’s Hunk, Pidge, and Keith. Don’t forget to show them some love too alright?” They continued licking and softly headbutting him.

Shiro laughed warmly at the blue paladin’s innocent introduction. “Tell them I say hello. You’re right Lance, they’re very sweet.”  Lance giggled as they continued to purr loudly. “Shiro says hello.”

“Lance, are you ready for the surprise?” Lance looked back to her wondering what it could be. Then he heard a tiny whine. Lance turned around so quickly. Everyone squealed in delight, “Puppies!”

“Lamura, you didn’t tell me they were parents!”

“We had to keep them in a separate area to make sure they grew healthy and strong. We also had to slowly get them used to people so they won’t get overwhelmed.”

Lance cooed at them sounding a little choked up. “They’re so beautiful.” They were just pups, so fluffy, their faces a tad chubby and round like that of a seal pup. Their beady eyes only told stories of their pure souls. He did not feel worthy to gaze upon them.

He held out his hand to them waiting for them to come to him. “Come to uncle Lance.” They padded over to him, soon he was in heaven surrounded by a cloud of fluff that was giving him puppy kisses. Lance couldn’t– no, wouldn’t stop smiling even when his face hurt.

“Uncle Lance?” Shiro asked a grin noticeable in his tone.

“You’re an uncle too Shiro! Since you’re here to witness this. Hunk and Keith too. Pidge will be the cool aunt.”

Shiro laughed when he heard Pidge’s voice. “Yes! I’m the cool aunt!” Lance turned around to see Pidge holding up a puppy like in that classic Lion King scene.

Shiro smiled fondly at the precious sight because how could he not. The splashes of Lance’s giddiness and delight tickled him.

—

When they headed back to the castle Allura sent them to Coran to check on what he knows. Apparently he’s been trying out an experiment.

“Ahh, you’re all here. Hmm! So this is Shance, was it? Truly remarkable.” Coran rounded said person getting a good look at him.

Lance gave a questioning look to Hunk, he must have been the one to tell Coran that. Hunk only grinned and shrugged but he wasn’t denying it.

“So how are you two, Shiro, Lance? Any pain? Hopefully not.”

“Nah Coran, we’re fine, honest. Err, well, as fine as we could be like this anyway.”

Coran nodded glad that no problems had arisen. He led them to his testing area while explaining his findings. “I vaguely remember hearing something similar to properties of the crystal the princess showed me. But I just can’t quite grasp the memory clearly. So while I have the castle check it’s databases for anything similar I conducted a few tests of my own. I managed to chip off a tiny piece off one of the crystals and fused together a wrench and a toaster as a test subject.”

“Whoa.” Lance breathed, that sounded neat. They could fuse all sorts of tools and Hunk could get a Swiss army tool set. He had to remember to tell Hunk his idea.

“…Unfortunately, when I tested if the fusion would end harmlessly if I destroyed the specific crystal shard, it resulted in the mess before you.” He gestured to the scattered remains of shrapnel and debris. The original parts were ripped to shreds beyond recognition.

“Whoa…” This time Lance breathed it eyes wide and full of dread. He clasped a hand protectively on the pocket that held their crystal.

Hunk raised a hand and proposed, “okay, guess we shouldn’t touch their crystal til we know for sure what to do.”

“Agreed.”

—

Lance was inside his room getting his sleep clothes ready to change into after he showered when Shiro spoke up. “You really did a good job out there today.”

Lance recoiled at that then sighed. “Shiro, you don’t have to keep saying that. The mission’s over too so you can be in charge again.”

“Lance, I mean it. You’re so much more than you know. I know because I was right here to witness some of it. I felt the way you calmed yourself down and steadied your hands in the moments you had to take a shot and you don’t miss. You reigned in your fear when things got serious. You pulled off those trick shots with hardly any time to prepare. And you’re a quick thinker in a pinch.”

“Shiro… what brought this on?” Lance’s voice was soft.

Should he tell him? Shiro sighed.  Well, honesty was the best policy and lying now could hurt them later. “The other day when you had a fight with Keith, I followed you to check if you were alright…” He let Lance connect the dots hoping he wouldn’t misunderstand.

Lance’s face fell. “Y–You heard all that..?” Oh no, Shiro felt ice walls forming up, he was getting defensive and guarding himself. “Is that why you put me in charge? Cause I got a little insecure? You can’t get rid of them just like that. I can handle them fine on my own and I did. I calmed down and talked to Keith afterwards.” Shiro ached at how upset he sounded.

“Wait please, Lance. I didn’t mean to make you feel like this. And I’m sorry. But I don’t regret that mission. You really showed your stuff back there. Everyone gets insecure sometimes, there’s no erasing it, it’s a valid human emotion. But you don’t have to deal with it alone if you don’t want to. You can go to your team or come to me whenever you’re feeling down and we can remind you how amazing you are, what you’re capable of since we’ve seen what you can do. I’ve seen what you can do.”

Lance was quiet for a moment. Then he heard Lance sniffle and didn’t say anything when Lance’s sight got blurry with moisture. “Thank you, Shiro…” The ice melted leaving a soft pool of water filled to the brim with heartfelt gratitude. That caused Shiro to huff a fond sigh.

He chuckled softly when Lance wiped his eyes complaining of space dust.

—

Showering and changing was certainly an awkward experience for Lance but something else was the focus of Shiro’s mind at the moment. It was ridiculous and absurd but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

When Lance looked at the mirror, they both saw how their body was riddled with scars. Shiro’s scars. It was almost as if Lance’s skin had been marred by Shiro’s past year. Like the ghosts that would haunt him, now had a new target.

He tried to shake those thoughts away. They just were parts of his overactive, stressed-out imagination. He tried to remind himself; the scars have healed over, they had no hold on Lance and that they were not hurting him.

He was startled when he felt a wave of concern coming from Lance. Shiro mentally berated himself. If he could feel Lance’s emotions then Lance could feel his. He took a deep breath trying to calm down.

“Shiro, are you alright?” From the view Shiro now noticed Lance was in front of a mirror applying his usual facial mask to their skin.

“I– Yes, I am. I’m fine.” He responded a bit too quickly.

Lance cocked an eyebrow. “Really? So did you hear my question?”

Erk, he got him there. “No, sorry. What did you ask me?”

“I asked if you were uncomfortable with my facial mask and if you wanted me to take it off. You seemed… bothered by something. The winds were particularly wild and unsettled before.”

“Winds?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, you feel like the wind sometimes.”

“Ahh, and you feel like the ocean or water in general, in all its forms.”

“I guess it’s how our emotions get across to each other. That’s good to know. But my question still stands, do you want me to take off the mask?” His hands were raised ready to peel it off if Shiro said the word.

“No Lance, really I’m fine with that. I was just over thinking. Nothing you have to worry about.”

Lance managed to aim a kicked-puppy look at him through the mirror. “Shiro, after everything you said about me not having to suffer alone, you do know that also applies to you too, right? I won’t ask right now but know that I’m available to talk with about anything from planets you find interesting to a pun you just made up. You can talk to me.”

Shiro chuckled wetly, this day had been a lot for both of them. But he couldn’t deny how lighter his chest felt from Lance trying to reach out in an effort to help him. He didn’t force him to respond either, just waiting patiently til the time comes. “Ok, I’ll think about it. Thank you though, really.”

Lance was getting ready for bed taking one last look at his desk. On top of it was both their casual clothes each folded neatly in their own pile. Their amber crystal was there too. “Maybe the fusion is a timed thing so it’ll just wear off on its own and when we wake up we’ll be separate again.”

“Is that why you brought my clothes here too?”

“Yup.” Lance reached out for his sleep mask and right at that moment he felt the winds get stronger and rougher. This time he was sure the sleep mask was the cause. “Shiro…”

Lance sighed when he didn’t say anything. “Technically Shiro, we share a body right now. You have as much right to this body as I do. I don’t want to make you go through things that’ll make you uncomfortable.” Lance placed the sleep mask on the table.

Shiro let out a deep breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Ok, ok. I, uh, I don’t think I can handle the sleep mask right now.” He didn’t like things that restrained him or his senses, they made him feel captured again. Although he understood his limits with this fusion so it didn’t bother him too much. Lance was right here too asking for his preferences so he didn’t feel alone and gave him some semblance of control.

“Good. Good. That’s alright. That's absolutely fine. How about headphones and listening to soothing, mellow music?”

Shiro chuckled. “That’s fine.”

Lance settled onto the bed, soft notes filling the silence in the room and closed his eyes. “Goodnight, Shiro.”

“Goodnight, Lance.” Shiro relaxed, he felt the ocean envelop him surrounding him with warmth and a sense of safety.

Lance smiled as he drifted off barely hearing Shiro’s voice before going to sleep. “Thank you, Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like Hunk would be the one to smush their names together to come up with an easier name like he did with "robeast".  
> And you don't know how happy it makes me to know that Lance is said to be a loving, caring uncle to his nieces and nephews.


	4. Chapter 4

Shiro shifted around on the bed, the light music filling his ears. The soft covers, sleepwear, and bedding felt really nice. He relaxed into the comforting warmth surrounding him. Shiro smiled at memory this warmth reminded him of, Lance wanting to help him in any way he can by listening to his needs and coaxing him to speak up more if he wanted something. They were sharing a body and Lance made it clear that they could do things he asked for too instead of Lance dragging both of them around doing whatever the younger wanted.

All of a sudden the warmth was sapped away by scared, chilling ice.

“S–Shiro, I can’t see! I don’t think I can move my body either!” Shiro sat up quickly tearing off the headphones at Lance’s frightened tone.

“Lance!? Lance, what’s wrong?” He looked around quickly trying to find the younger teen. There was no one beside him. “Where–?”

It hit him like a truck, he was able to move his body. No scratch that, it was still their body covered in Lance’s sleepwear. But now Shiro was in control of it.

Lance was also connecting the dots as the chill vanished. Sight returned to him when Shiro opened their eyes.

“Was this what it was like for you? Dude, you should’ve said something! If I had known, I would have asked you what you wanted to do more often.” Lance seemed to be calming down, though only to get upset on his behalf.

“Lance, it’s fine really.” Shiro could hear him sigh but didn’t push further.

“But Lance, what about you? Are you ok with this?” He was freaking out earlier but not being able to see or move suddenly would startle anyone.

“Aww Shiro, it’s alright. I basically dragged you around everywhere yesterday. It’s only fair you get a turn.”

Shiro rolled his eyes bemused then turned to their clothes on the table. He’ll have to get them ready for today. He supposed he would use his casual clothes for now even if it might be looser on his smaller body. Their body might stretch out Lance’s clothes…

Weren’t there two piles of clothes? Why was there only one? He gingerly held out the topmost article of clothing revealing it to be a vest. But it wasn’t his vest, the color and other additions were similar to…

“My jacket!” Lance howled in agony as if he was completely betrayed. “What happened to it!? Shiro fix this!”

He sighed exasperated. “Lance, you know I have no idea how.” He could feel Lance pouting.

The mood quickly became dark clouds and rain. Lance was sad. “Lance, are you alright? The crystal must have fused our clothes too. So if the fusion ends, they would go back to normal too.” He tried to explain that it wasn’t lost forever.

“I guess… it’s just, it was a gift from my older brother, it used to be his. It really means alot to me and I don’t want anything to happen to it if I can help it. That jacket one of few things I have that reminds me of home… Sorry! Sorry, I didn’t– I’ll just–” The rain, the clouds, and the ocean felt like they were retreating as if to keep his sadness and homesickness away from Shiro. He didn’t want to burden him with those feelings.

“Lance… stop. It’s alright, there’s nothing wrong with cherishing something or missing home. You don’t have to keep your emotions bottled up to keep me from feeling them, I don’t mind, really. We’ll figure something out and get us unfused. Don’t worry, Lance.” He spoke softly. He didn’t want Lance to close himself off. As they are now, feeling his emotions was his main way to know if he was alright.

He smiled as he felt the ocean roll back onto the shore hesitant but happy. “Yeah… thanks Shiro.” He nodded to himself. Shiro looked at their hybrid vest gently swiping his thumb over the fabric. If it meant so much to Lance, of course he’ll do his best to take care of it. It probably held lots of precious memories for him and now it has a new, albeit strange memory to tell.

—

After Shiro peeled off the mask and washed their face he stared sadly at their reflection. He knew that he looks different because he and Lance fused but he couldn’t shake dread dropping into his stomach like a heavy stone. Every time he looks in the mirror reminds him of how he’s changed, been changed by the Galra. He looked so radically different from who he was before the Kerberos mission. Sometimes he wondered if the same young man was still inside him or–

“Shiro… this is your conscience speaking… your totally amazing and handsome conscience.” Lance interrupted in an obviously fake ghostly voice. He somehow gave Shiro the impression that he was winking and showing off a million dollar smile.

Shiro snorted. “Really, Lance?”

“Hey, you missed out on some good opportunities right here.” He got the feeling Shiro was thinking too loud and thought he could use a distraction.

“Oh and by the way, as your conscience, I received a message from our stomach that we should eat some breakfast. So make us a sandwich, chop chop, you heard your conscience.” Lance playfully joked around.

As if to agree with his ‘conscience’, their empty stomach growled. Shiro burst out laughing. His eyes were closed but Lance could feel Shiro smiling wide, he was inwardly very happy to have cheered him up. When he finally calmed down, he wiped away a stray tear and said, “Heh, ok, fine. Just don’t let all this power go to your head Lance.”

“Me!? Never!”

As he started to walk away from the bathroom, Shiro took one last look in the mirror and smiled warmly. He could almost see Lance genuinely beaming at him.

As Shiro was walking to the kitchen, a thought occurred to Lance. “Hey Shiro? You ever see those shoulder angel and devil things in those old cartoons?”

Shiro raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Yeah, why?”

Lance gasped in delight. “I could be like that for you! Since I’m a voice in your head and all. Oh my gosh, I could be your angle or yuor devil!” He snickered to himself.

Shiro tried to hid his laughter behind his hand but it was all in vain what with being fused to someone.

Lance let out an excited squeal. “Shiro! You’re laughing and you didn’t correct me! Oh! You know it, don’t you!? You know the meme. You like memes, don’t you!?”

Ah! Shiro was quick to deny it, he might never hear the end of it from Lance. He coughed to force down his snickering and tried to keep his voice steady and stern. “Lance, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sure, Shiro. Sure.” He’s sure Lance would be side-eyeing him right now if he could, complete with a Cheshire cat grin.

Shiro just noticed that he was already in the kitchen. Over near the counter were Hunk and Keith looking at him like he’s grown another head. Oh, now that he thought about it talking to Lance must seem like he’s muttering to himself. It probably seemed weird to the others. Or wait! He said Lance’s name, whereas if Lance was still in control he would refer to Shiro when talking with him.

“Shiro?” Keith walked up to him wide eyed. Hunk was right behind him.

He laid a hand on Keith’s shoulder face softening, and confirmed gently. “Yeah, I’m here.” Shiro nodded at Hunk. “And Lance is alright too. He’s taking full advantage of being a voice only I can hear.”

“Hey!” Lance’s voice chimed in playfully. “Oh! It just occurred to me but I could totally hum fitting background music for you. Or belt out some nice songs.”

“Please don’t, Lance.”

Hunk looked closely at them cocking an eyebrow. “Did you get new clothes or are those..?”

Shiro sighed, “Yes, Hunk. When we woke up, we found that the crystal fused our clothes too. I mean, how else can we explain this.” He gestured to his clothes that fit perfectly on their person.

Their stomach let out another grumble reminding them they still haven’t had breakfast. Hunk smiled and was kind enough to prepare something more tasty than food goo for them. Afterwards, Keith and Hunk were leading them to the training room. Allura had asked yesterday if she could see their fused body’s combat skills to see how else this fusion could have affected them. Lance and Shiro didn’t mind so they scheduled it for today after some needed rest.

Hunk told them that Pidge was with Coran helping him sort through the similar matches to “fusion” in the database. But they’ll have a break soon to see the fused body in action as they were curious as well.

—

Everyone was in the training room as expected. Allura had already planned a series of tests specifically with Lance in mind as he was in control the last time she’d seen them. She didn’t take into account the switch either.

Pidge took it in stride though jotting down notes on anything they learned about fusion. She asked to him activate his prosthetic hand as a start. Everyone looked on in awe when his plasma hand glowed in its usual purple but had hints of blue streaking at the edges of his wrist too. Lance’s quintessence, perhaps?

“Shiro? How did you gain control of your fused body?” Everyone stared at him for an answer.

He did not have an answer. “We woke up like this. …Really! That’s it.”

Pidge hummed at him adjusting her glasses and suggested they try to voluntarily switch places to see if could be done.

Shiro nodded and closed his eyes. He asked Lance to try and take control while he ‘stepped back’. A few minutes of difficult concentration passed… but nothing happened. Shiro opened one eye after the other and lifted a hand in front of his face. Yup, he was still in control. They tried several more times but nothing changed.

Allura decided they shouldn’t linger on failed attempts and try something new. She set Shiro up against a low level gladiator as a warm up exercise for close combat. She explained that next they would test his ranged skills with target practice to find if he had access to some of Lance’s skills from the fusion. She would have had them do the opposite if Lance was still in control.

This was supposed to be easy, Shiro’s been through this countless time. But his muscles started locking in place. Dread and fear started to overwhelm him just like the first time they tried to fight the gladiator. He was back in a dark hallway lit with purple lights, galra drones closing in on him trying to capture him. He gritted his teeth, he could push this down, he had to, come on-

Lance wasn’t spared from the onslaught of Shiro’s strong emotions. They manifested as sudden turbulent gales and threatened to throw him around like a rag doll. In their mindscape Lance dug his heels into the ground leaning forward to fight against the winds.

“Shiro!” He called out unsure whether Shiro could hear him or if he was drowned out by the howling winds. But he wasn’t going to give up. Lance kept calling out to him.

Shiro inhaled sharply the moment Lance’s voice reached him rapidly blinking back into reality. The world slowed down and he could see clearly that the gladiator was only a second away from landing an attack with its staff.

He managed a quick parry and blocked the attack with his metal arm. Shiro side-stepped the gladiator and easily slashed it in half at the torso with a diagonal cut. It disintegrated in a burst of pixels. He stood up taking deep breaths trying to calm his heart and settle the lingering anxiety hanging over him. The calming waves he felt from Lance helped soothed down his nerves too. He whispered a quiet ‘thank you’ to Lance.

Lance quietly sighed in relief as the winds slowly tapered off to the usual, reassuring breeze.

Keith rushed up to them, he could tell something bothered Shiro. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine Keith.” When it looked like Keith didn’t believe him, Shiro hastily changed the subject. “Let’s move on to target practice, shall we?”

The blue bayard formed Lance’s gun. Shiro didn’t know what he was expecting but of course it would still form Lance’s weapon of choice since the blue paladin was right here after all.

Shiro slowly breathed in and out as he aimed carefully for the center of the bullseye. Thankfully, Lance had apparently explained to Coran one day what earth targets look like. From what Coran was talking about Altean targets seemed really complicated, with flashy stripes and occasionally disappearing tendencies.

Shiro thought he would miss sometimes, not having practiced that much with a ranged weapon but all his shots were going dead center. Their fused body really must have compounded their skills. He could have sworn sometimes just right before he fired a shot, his hands would instinctively readjust the alignment of the bayard a few degrees and probably correcting the trajectory to get an accurate shot.

“Alright, let’s try a little something more of Lance’s speed, hmm?” Coran asked in his usual cheerful manner.

“Coran!” Lance hissed. Shiro was surprised at that. It seemed Lance didn’t want Coran to continue with what he wanted to show. Shiro was about to question him when the new targets appeared.

Three round practice drones flew out of a wall to the opposite side of the room where the static targets were. They sped through a predetermined route, a simple circle. But the most important feature were that they were insanely small. Shiro supposed it was to make it seem like they were farther away in a room with a fixed distance. But how could anyone hit those things while they moved around in a blur?

Lance sighed but then attempted to relax Shiro with a reassuring tone. “Don’t worry Shiro, this is easy as pie.”

Shiro grumbled under his breath, “says the guy who sniped that bandit in the leg _while he was running away_.”

Lance had the gall to chuckle. “Easy, Shiro. Just breath and calm down. You’re not even trying to follow their movements. They’re moving in a circle so you just have to aim at the space just ahead of them, where they will be.”

Lance sounded strangely knowledgeable about this. Did he practice with Coran before? How come he’s never seen Lance do this exercise before?

“Take your time and follow one of them with your eyes.” Shiro smiled at Lance’s soft, encouraging voice.

The shape of a drone became clearer as he focused on it, his eyes easily keeping up. Shiro picked a spot where he would fire and waited till the drone was in the right position and then..! Blam! Shiro didn’t bother to hide the elated pride he felt (and that he was sure Lance could feel) as he successfully shot down a drone.

“Awesome, Shiro!” Lance crowed and Shiro grinned matching his infectious excitement and energy. He readied his next shot. The next two drones going down as easy as the the first.

—

After the usual paladin training exercises, everyone was down at the dining area eating dinner and discussing what they learned. Pidge and Allura determined that if Shiro had Lance’s skill at handling a laser gun then Lance should be able to handle Shiro’s level of close combat or at the very least have access to his muscle memory.

Shiro huffed in amusement when Lance started to make fighting noises. There was a ‘hyah!’ here and a ‘pow!’ there, he was imagining himself taking down a decent leveled gladiator with their bare hands.

During their discussion Coran was stroking his mustache deep in thought trying to coax the vague memory of someone mentioning fusion to surface. It was close.

He yelled as soon as it hit him scaring everyone at the table. “Ah! I remember now! Mutari. That’s the planet rumored to have had an ancient civilization that possessed the power to fuse things. The people would fuse with technology to gain better control for building and the like. They would fuse with animals for their guards to gain various strengths.”

Shiro nodded to Coran. “What about people? Would a person fuse with another?”

Coran’s face fell at that. “Well… Someone said they discovered ancient ruins on the planet and decoded some of the writings on the wall that held some information on fusion such as what I said earlier but I don’t remember anything about a person fusing with another sentient being. Ah! But it could just be because some records were lost to time is all. No reason to look so glum, this is a lead as good as any!”

Shiro nodded returning a small smile. “Alright, set a course for Mutari.” He turned the rest of his team. “We’ll find and search the ruins then go on from there.” Everyone made a noise of assent.

The ocean splashed with excitement. “Ooh, do you think that’s where the crystals came from? The bandits said they found it in the cargo ship they stole.” It would be nice to make sure but the bandits destroyed any records on the ship in an effort to cover their tracks but this idea made sense.

Shiro hummed fondly as he felt the younger’s growing hope for the situation. Hopefully they’ll find a way to end the fusion before the Galra attacks and they need Voltron.

—

Shiro was heading back to Lance’s room. He asked him if he could continue his skin care routine since he can’t put it on himself which of course he would agree. What were friends for?

He began to wonder about when Coran slipped in those other targets certain that Lance’s skill could carry him through it and that Lance didn’t seem to want anyone to know about. Did he train secretly?

It’s late though, he would ask tomorrow. Right now he was busy listening to Lance who was teaching him how to apply the face mask correctly. And telling him the different kinds of music he had stored so Shiro could listen to his own choice of music through the headphones when they sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter might have relatively tiny spoilers for season 3...
> 
>  
> 
> but only for the existence of Lance's sniper rifle bayard as I headcanon that he could have been practicing with it behind the scenes before season 3. All in all though this fic takes place before season 3 probably till I get more answers with the next season.

It was still in the middle of the night when Lance woke up. He quietly stared at the ceiling waiting for his eyes to adjust to the faint glow that illuminated his room.

He felt a light breeze fluttering to and fro at a slow steady pace. Lance smiled and hummed softly. Shiro was still fast asleep.

He peeled off his face mask and took off the headphones carefully as to not wake Shiro up. With footsteps light as a feather Lance headed down the hall to the training deck, his bayard in hand. Maybe he could get some private practice in while Shiro was asleep.

He’d been secretly practicing with his bayard trying to perfect his skills with it and find a way for him to contribute wholly to the team. Coran had found him once and while Lance had sworn him to secrecy much to the advisors confusion he offered to help the boy any way that he could. Lance sighed, he understood that Coran wanted to help him show off his skill yesterday in a way that would shine spectacularly but it was still pulled up unexpectedly.

Once he was in the training deck he went to the farthest corner pulling up a holo-display to quietly set up the training sim. Training with his sniper rifle should be ok. It was considerably less noisy. He hasn’t shown anyone he could do this yet as he was still adjusting to using the sightscope.

Lance knelt down on one knee with his hand placed on the ground in front of him to keep his balance as some parts of the floor rose into platforms of varying heights. A few gladiators and round floating drones were generated and were making rounds in the new landscape.

Looking through the sightscope made it easier to see his targets. Lance sniped down targets that were alone first as to not garner any attention from the rest. He quickly sniped all the drones but the gladiators adapted and hid behind the platforms. But with his keen eye Lance was able to find them as they peeked out the corners.

Once all the targets were gunned down Lance leaned back to appreciate this form of the blue bayard. His sniper rifle was more stronger than his normal ray gun. It could penetrate the their armor easily. Even if it wouldn’t be suitable for close combat this new form will definitely come in handy for long-range or stealth missions.

“Lance, you can form a sniper rifle with your bayard!?” Shiro sudden and impressed voice took Lance by deep surprise causing him to shriek.

“S–Shiro?! You’re awake! How long have you been awake?!” He stammered.

Shiro responded sheepishly, “ahh, I woke up just in time to see you shoot a gladiator as it tried to hid behind a platform.”

Hmm… That was one of the last few targets he took down so he wasn’t awake for that long. “Sorry for waking you up, Shiro.”

“End training sequence.” He stood up as the training deck started to return to normal.

“Lance, it’s amazing that your bayard has access to different forms. How come you haven’t shown it to the rest of us? And have you always been secretly training here?” Shiro was proud of Lance for unlocking a new power from his bayard but genuinely curious as to why Lance has been hiding it. He thought the younger would love to show it off as soon as he unlocked it.

Lance was walking towards the exit of the training deck but stopped in his tracks at Shiro’s questions. “Thanks Shiro, but uh, could you not tell anyone about the sniper rifle? I’ve been practicing hard to master it and I don’t think I’m there yet.” Lance stared silently at his bayard, his grip on it slightly tightening. This was war, if he wasn’t perfect, one mistake could cost everything.

Shiro could feel it, the ice coming from Lance that represented his insecurities. At first he thought it was just ice occasionally floating in the ocean that probably meant Lance wanted to seem amazingly competent with his new sniper skills. But now he was getting better at reading his emotions. Lance’s insecurities were like an iceberg where most of it was hidden just below the surface. There was something more to this but he wouldn’t push him.

Hmm. Maybe if he sent supporting vibes to Lance like he had done for him, it might gently coax him to open up.

Lance sighed heavily feeling a gentle tailwind encouraging him to go forward. He knew what Shiro wanted. Well… Shiro did tell him that he was here if he needed to talk especially if he was getting insecure. “I– I’m no prodigy like Keith or a mechanic like Hunk or a tech genius like Pidge. Sometimes I feel like I’m not contributing enough for the team. …Sometimes it feels like I have work so much harder to keep up with you guys.”

Judging from the stuttering of the wind, Shiro was taken aback though he quickly composed himself. “Lance, you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone else. You are important to this team. You contribute in your own way just as much as anyone on this team. It’s good to see you working hard to improve yourself. But don’t push yourself too hard thinking this is the only way to contribute to the team. You’re capable of so much more than you know. You are enough, more than enough.”

“Shiro..!” Lance whispered in reverence.

“And whenever you decide to show off your nice sniper rifle, I know everyone is going to be deeply impressed.”

What he got in return was splashes of playfulness and gratitude. Lance smiled. “Thanks Shiro. Yeah… I’m gonna knock the socks off everyone with my sudden mastery over this! Kinda like that general who cleverly made it seem like he built a castle overnight and wiped the moral of his enemies into the dirt.” Shiro chuckled as he felt the ocean sparkle as Lance beamed.

—

Lance told Shiro that he had to check on some things real quick then he would hit the sack. From the looks of it, it seemed to Shiro that they were heading to the kitchens. Did Lance want a midnight snack?

“Hmmm. Ok. Hunk’s not here. Good, that’s good. Hunk’s probably sleeping. Sometimes he’d stay up late and stress bake cause a 10,000 year war takes its toll and all. He could use a someone to talk to when he gets like that.” Lance turned on his heel exiting the way he came but took a left turn to a new hallway. “Keith sometimes is in the training deck but he wasn’t there tonight so he’s most likely sleeping.”

“So Pidge next?” Shiro recognized this route, it lead to the Green Lion’s hanger.

Lance nodded. “Yup, sometimes she gets to invested in her work and forgets to sleep or eat. But also sometimes she needs to sort out her thoughts so I play the role of rubber duck. That’s something people would talk to out loud, I think it helps organize their thoughts or highlight things they’d normally miss.”

Shiro smiled warmly, Lance really was sweet and caring even though he tries really hard to keep up a “suave, cool” reputation.

They found Pidge sitting at a table hunched over her laptop. There were some wires connected to a scanner that held a small piece of an amber crystal.

Lance jogged up to her and ruffled her hair. “Hey Pidge-Podge. Do you know what Allura and Coran are up to?”

Pidge didn’t look up from her laptop while she explained that Allura was looking up any information on how Mutari might have changed these past 10,000 years, while Coran was experimenting other ways that might end a fusion in less drastic ways. The last time she heard from him, he said he going to test siphoning the energy from the crystal till something happened.

“Alright,” Lance nodded to himself although he didn’t know how siphoning energy did not count as drastic, “so what are you up to?”

Pidge pointed to the crystal suspended in the glass casing of the the scanner. “I’m analyzing the unique energy signature of these crystals. It’s similar to the Balmera crystal but obviously has very different properties.”

“Obviously.”

“They seem to produce more energy after fusion. Coran wants to call it synch energy since it’s one of the terms he heard back then. He thinks it’s what keeps the two original bodies together. Oh hey! Do you have your crystal with you? I could scan it to see if anything is different than when two non-animated things are fused.” They nodded to each other and Pidge emptied out the case. She left it open for Lance to place the shard in there.

“Shiro, you seeing this? We’re winning!” He giggled as he pointed at the graph on the screen specifically at the new readings that were significantly higher compared to the previous graph.

Shiro snorted amused at his silliness. “It’s not a competition, Lance.”

“Hmm..”

“Is that a bad hmm or a good hmm?”

“Well, according to this, your crystal has a lot of synch energy and it’s quite stable too. I guess it means it can hold the fusion for a long time.”

Lance’s face fell. “Oh… a bad hmm.”

“But why? It’s smaller than Pidge’s current sample.” Shiro asked and Lance relayed to Pidge.

“I think being two people is a big factor. By the way, tell me the exact details leading up to the fusion. Maybe we can get a better understanding for the conditions for a fusion between two err… “willing” participants.”

Lance tapped his chin with a finger humming as he thought back to that moment. “Large chunks started to fall down from the ceiling, there was no more time. There was another tunnel behind Shiro so I pushed us inside. It wasn’t level so we tumbled down and I tried to cover Shiro as much as I could to protect him.”

“Actually, I was trying to do the same for you Lance.” He was a little surprised by Lance’s account of the moment but not too surprised, he did have a protective streak going seeing as he shielded Coran from an explosion with his body.

“Really!?” Lance happily grinned to himself. He caught Pidge’s questioning look and explained that Shiro had done the same for him.

Pidge opened the glass case for Lance to take back their crystal. “Huh, maybe you two were fused because you both were trying to do the same thing: protect each other.”

“If it’s like that then ‘synch energy’… ‘synergy’? makes a lot of sense. But then why haven’t we unfused yet? We’re no longer in danger.”

Lance looked on as Pidge began typing notes on her laptop. “It could be a teamwork kind of thing like if the two people involved work well together then the fusion is healthy, stable, and strong. Which is somewhat unfortunate for us if we want to end the fusion. We’re teammates so we gotta work well together and coordinating teamwork is something you’re good at Lance.”

“I am?”

Pidge nodded. “You’re pretty good at keeping us on the same page when we’re executing a plan.” Shiro had to agree as well.

“O–oh…” Lance’s voice shook a little. Did this mean he was the reason they were having trouble unfusing?

“No Lance. Of course not.” Lance jerked in surprise at Shiro’s voice speaking up all of a sudden. Lance inhaled sharply, was Shiro able to read his mind?

Shiro chuckled, “no, but I think I’m getting better at reading your emotions to guess where your train of thought is headed. Just remember Lance, it’s not your fault, we’ll figure something out.”

Lance smiled at that. “…yeah. Thanks Shiro.” Then he yawned loudly reminding him it was still late into the night. “Alright Pidge, I’m going back to bed, you should do the same too.”

Pidge and Lance had an intense staring contest, a battle of wills so to speak. Shiro wondered what kind of unspoken conversation they were having with only their eyes. When Pidge let out a defeated sigh, he could tell she lost. She grumbled as she saved her files on her laptop, “fine, I’ll just update Coran on our recent theories then go catch up on a few hours of sleep.” Good, a few hours were certainly better than none.

Lance grinned warmly at her and ruffled her hair one last time before heading back to bed.

He snuggled deeper into the soft bedding and pillow. Lance silently reached out to Shiro trying to let him know how he appreciates all his support. The soothing breeze he felt in return let him know Shiro understood. Lance smiled, sleep starting to drag him down and muttered, “‘Night, Shiro.”

“Goodnight, Lance.”

—

In the morning Shiro stretched out like a cat, another night of restful sleep. He checked his surroundings and yup, still fused. In the back of his mind he could feel the ocean waves lazily rolling on and off the shore in time to the even breathing he can faintly hear. Lance must still be asleep.

Shiro got up to get ready for the day. He met up with Hunk and Keith in the dining area. They haven’t seen Pidge yet so he told them of their findings so they weren’t out of the loop.

That was when Lance began to wake up. He seemed alarmed that he wasn’t in control of their body today. “Hey! I thought it’s my turn today?”

Shiro rubbed his neck sheepishly. “Sorry, Lance.” There wasn’t anything he could do really, he just woke up in control of their body.

Lance huffed a little put out. “I’m thinking control over this body is less 50/50 and more ‘first come, first served’ for whoever wakes up first.” He shrugged and supposed he would just go with the flow.

Coran and Pidge walked into the room discussing something. Coran approached the table nodding to Shiro and stated that he might have found a way to separate them if they’re willing to try. He led them to the room where he was experimenting, all the while explaining what he’s been doing.

He drained synergy from a crystal and converted it to a different kind of energy that the castle can store as a backup power source. Once a crystal was almost completely drained. The items he fused unfused and with no exploding or imploding of any kind! Coran wanted to present this option to them so they know it was available. If it didn’t work out then they were still heading to Mutari to gather information. However Pidge reminded them that it has been 10,000 years, who knows if the ruins survived the hands of time not to mention other factors. But ultimately it was Shiro and Lance’s decision to make.

Shiro muttered quietly to Lance, “What do you think Lance?”

“Well, so far all his samples weren’t ripped to pieces. That’s good, right? If you’re up to it then count me in. Nothing ventured nothing gained, right? But seriously, if something feels funny speak up, ok Shiro?”

“Of course and you have to promise to do the same.”

“Yeah. Promise.” At that Shiro nodded resolutely to Coran.

Shiro stood near a wall where Coran conveniently set up a large mirror. It was probably to get them hopeful for the best outcome. Yards away was a machine that looked similar to Pidge’s scanner but it was hooked up to large, empty, cylindrical tubes. When he had placed their crystal into the glass case Coran explained that the tubes would store the converted energy.

Keith, Hunk, and Pidge were nearby, ready to step in if necessary at a moment’s notice. Coran stood at the console of the machine hand held up over the holo-screen. “Please do not hesitate if you feel something is amiss. I’ll be here to stop the process immediately at your word.”

Shiro nodded in affirmation. “We will, Coran.”

The machine hummed to life as soon as Coran hit a button. Nearly half a varga passed and still nothing happened but it was expected. Pidge did say their crystal had more synergy present. Shiro took in a deep breath to calm his nerves, the waiting was getting to him.

Coran and the others frequently checked in with them to make sure they were doing alright.

Nearly two vargas in and everyone flinched as the crystal started to brighten and flash almost akin to a lightbulb fritzing. Coran quickly piped up, “Ah, this happens just before the samples would unfuse.”

Everyone shielded their eyes as the crystal unleashed one last blinding flash of light. There was a shift. Shiro and Lance could feel it. Ocean and sky started to separate leaving an empty space where the other used to be.

Lance opened his eyes and looked at the image in the mirror. He focused on the fact that there were two familiar bodies instead of one. Yes! They were unfused! Lance whooped and laughed with joy as he pumped his fist in the air. “Whoo-hoo! We’re unfused!”

A tense silence greeted him.

…Why was no one else celebrating with him? He turned slightly fist still in the air. Everyone was staring at him in shock like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

“What?” Lance let his fist fall to the side standing straighter and a bit more self-conscious.

He looked around seeing the dumbfounded looks on Pidge, Hunk, Keith, Coran,… and h–himself!?

“Wha–!” Lance took a step back from where his own body was staring at him.

The other put his hands up in a peaceful gesture to show he was of no harm and asked, “Lance?”

“Shiro?”

Lance turned to look more closely at the mirror again. The Shiro in the reflection stared back at him wide-eyed with shock. Their mouths moving at the same time. “What the cheese?!”


	6. Chapter 6

Lance slapped a hand over his mouth. Was that his voice? No, it was Shiro’s voice. It felt so strange to hear Shiro’s voice saying “What the cheese.” From the looks on everyone else they thought it was strange too.

For them it was so surreal to see Shiro(‘s body) whooping and hollering and acting so Lance-like.

Hunk, his best bro, his sunshine, his angel fish approached him and placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. “Lance? Are you really in there?”

Hunk looked worried and nervous and Lance wasn’t having that. He took in a deep breath, nodded, and gave him a reassuring smile. “Y-Yeah, Hunk. I’m here. I’m good. This just, uh, threw me for a loop there.” Lance turned to see Shiro talking with Pidge and Keith reassuring them too.

Coran cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. Once he did, he looked to Shiro and Lance asking if they felt anything strange that could have caused this. The two looked at each other then back to Coran confusion written all over their faces.

“I felt us separating,” Shiro started and Lance nodded to show it was the same for him, “But wasn’t that supposed to happen?”

Coran twirled his mustache in thought. “That may be so…”

“Did we go about the process all wrong?” Hunk asked.

Pidge stepped up voice the next problem. “Then how do we fix this?”

Keith shrugged and suggested, “How about they fuse again then try separating them again?”

“It’s a start…” Shiro faced Lance to see if he was on board. He shrugged and nodded since he didn’t have any better idea.

Then a question popped up in Lance’s head. “So will we need a new crystal or-?” He squinted at the glass case. The small crystal was no longer amber but now clear, empty. A regular gemstone now.

“Hmm. Yes quite. But don’t worry lads I’ll prepare a crystal shard with the same cut and dimensions as your old one in case it would make a difference.”

Hunk gasped, “wait! But if the fusion is made up of Lance and Shiro in each other’s bodies and the unfusing goes proper then won’t they just stay that way when their separated again?”

Pidge raised a brow and suggested, “But the same accident could happen again so they’ll just switch to their original bodies.”

“Oh yeah.” Hunk stroked his chin thoughtfully, he supposed two lefts could make a right. Although he felt a little sick to his stomach, anxiety and worry pooling in his gut while he was overthinking how badly this can turn out.

Allura’s voice cut in as she approached them. “There you all are, I- Oh! Shiro! Lance! You two have separated, how wonderful!” She clasped he hands in front of her smiling at the good news.

‘Shiro’ rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Well princess, the thing is…”

Huh? She squinted at ‘Shiro’ then ‘Lance.’ There was something off here. The way they carried themselves. The way their eyes looked. Shiro’s was a bit softer, younger than the black paladin she was used to. And Lance’s seemed more older, a bit harder somehow than the more expressive blue paladin she came to know. Something was not right…

“Uh, I’m Lance,” ‘Shiro’ waved to her then gestured to ‘Lance’, “and that’s Shiro.”

“…Is this some sort of prank?” She was hoping it was.

Shiro shook his head. “I’m afraid not, princess.”

Lance tried emulate his trademark Lance grin through Shiro’s body complete with his signature single sparkle to show who he was. It’s effect was less than stellar as Allura recoiled a bit having been thrown off by the completely off-character mannerisms for that body. He winced and stopped then told her not to worry for they had a plan… sorta.

She smiled back but it didn’t reach her eyes. Allura looked around and saw all their attention still on her. “I’m afraid I have some bad news. Mutari had recently been conquered by the Galra.”

Shiro and Allura agreed that liberating Mutari from the hands of the Galra will be top priority while looking for ruins was pushed back if there was any left. Who knows if the Galra or even the current civilization tore it down.

Shiro cleared his throat to keep any pessimistic thoughts at bay. Once the castle was closer to the planet, they would observe what they’re dealing with and plan accordingly.

—

Shiro stayed behind with Allura and Keith to properly explain to the princess what had transpired with the unfusing process and to discuss any more information Allura had gathered on Mutari.

Lance followed Hunk to the kitchen, he could tell something was bothering his buddy. Shiro’s eyes didn’t pick up the very minute gestures that easily but Lance himself understood body language and what to look for with Hunk. His shoulders were tense and his eyes slightly unfocused as if he was concentrating on a new piece of machinery or figuring out a new recipe… or stress baking.

Lance casually leaned on the counter as Hunk began to mix some ingredients together in a bowl. It seems like he was going to make some kind of pastry, knowing Hunk it’s going to be superb.

“Things aren’t going as well as we would’ve liked so I thought maybe we could use a nice pick-me-up or a break especially before liberating Mutari in the form of freshly baked cookies. No scaltrite this time, I’m sure. It’ll be 100% edible.” Aww. Lance smiled fondly at his best bud, he’s super sweet thinking of how to cheer his friends up.

Hunk was now mixing the batter with more fervor. “…and I’m trying to not think how else this fusion thing could have turned out. And there’s also the situation over on Mutari.”

Ah. There it was. Lance nodded in exasperated yet fond understanding. Hunk did usually err on the side of caution. He’s usually the one who can see danger a mile away. Lance could admit there were times he should have listened to him mostly because Hunk made sure everyone doesn’t hear the end of it if he’s right like with whole Rolo and Nyma incident.

“What if when you separate it gets something else not right like swaps your ages or you swap scars or gives you Shiro’s metal arm in place of your own or-!”

Could that actually happen? Picturing some of those scenarios left a bittersweet taste in his mouth. On one hand Lance wondered if sharing scars would take away some of Shiro’s burdens, part of the proof of how the Galra had affected him. But still, he didn’t know how to feel about receiving some of Shiro’s scars, getting scars he never earned himself either by his own clumsiness or through battle. And how would swapping arms work? Would Shiro’s arm still be missing or would his arm magically recover?

Lance roughly shook his head to push away those thoughts. No use worrying about hypothetical possibilities that haven’t happened yet. That’s Slav’s job.

“Ok, ok! It’ll be fine, Hunk. Pretty sure that won’t happen. We’ll get it right eventually. Soon we’ll be back to our normal selves and back to defending the universe in no time.” Lance punched the air in front of him in a very go-getter way full of optimism and positivity hoping it will sway Hunk away from worrying, for now at least.

After a moment of consideration Hunk gave him a small, encouraged smile. He placed small chunks of dough in rows on a tray carefully setting it up in the oven. Now all there was left to do was wait.

Lance noticed a strange machine a little ways off to the side of the kitchen. Hunk retrieved it and explained that it can make all sorts of music and noise, not complete songs but background things that can remind them of songs or accompany them as they sing. He still needed to test it out to check for any problems.

Lance grinned knowing where this was going. Karaoke! Hunk was a good friend to sing along with back in the Garrison either to ease finals nerves or just to have some fun. Hunk raised an eyebrow asking if he really wanted to try it out now seeing as he was in a different body with a whole different set of vocal chords.

“Well, I do have a new set of pipes I want to try out.” Lance bounced up and down hardly able to contain his excitement, a giant, ecstatic grin plastered on his face. His eyes sparked with joy as he pointed dramatically at Hunk exclaiming, “Hit it, Hunk!”

Hunk rolled his eyes amused and matching grin for grin, that was one way of looking at the brighter side of things. It was pretty fun to see ‘Shiro’ look like an excited puppy. He pressed a button and music started blaring.

—

Shiro and Keith were heading down the halls searching for Lance. Shiro wanted to squeeze in a few hours of practice for himself and Lance to get used to fighting in each other’s body. Optimally, the battle won’t require that but better safe than sorry. He asked Keith to spar with them to see if muscle memory would help Lance with close combat or if it would be easier for himself to adjust to fighting in Lance’s body.

Near the end of the hall, they started to hear some kind of muffled noise along with loud, raucous laughter.

Keith and Shiro looked to each other neither having any idea what was going on. They peeked into the door that lead to one side of the kitchen.

Across the room unaware of the two spying in on them were Lance, Hunk, and even Pidge cackling away and having the time of their lives. Safely on another table were cookies cooling down on some trays.

Pidge recovered fast, she was holding a tablet presumably meant for that odd machine they had there going through it eyes glittering as she found what she was looking for. “Here, how ‘bout this? Know this one?”

Soon opening notes and background beats started to fill the room. Lance gasped placing a hand on his chest in mock offense. “You underestimate me, Pidge! Of course I know this song!” And right on cue he started snapping his fingers to the beat smoothly singing the lyrics as well.

Shiro still wasn’t used to Lance talking with his voice, so hearing himself singing too was also very shocking and strange. Yet there was something oddly entertaining about it. His voice wasn’t cracking as he thought it might with Lance handling it. He recognized his rich tones but he could feel Lance’s enthusiasm and passion seamlessly mixed in.

Shiro saw Hunk and Pidge grinning brightly at Lance’s performance and even joining in for the chorus radiating joy.

~ _You’ve been such a, such a good friend to me! Know that I love you somehow!_ ~

All this fun, infectious energy brought up a smile he couldn’t fight. He glanced at Keith who was also smiling in fond amusement.

Once Lance had done an embellished finish on the final note the younger trio started applauding themselves on a job well done.

“Enjoying yourselves?” They all squeaked in surprise clearly startled, whipping their heads to face Shiro who found it far more amusing than he should have.

Lance chuckled sheepishly, embarrassed like a kid caught stealing from the cookie jar. And speaking of cookies Hunk offered them some cookies explaining they were singing to pass the time while they waited for the cookies to cook and then cool. It was just him and Lance at first, then later Pidge dropped by and delightedly joined in.

After eating the deliciously mouth-watering soft cookies -compliments to Hunk as always- Shiro managed to talk Lance into training with him and Keith. He went with them without much fuss. Although his eyes seemed to be drawn to the little twitches at the edges of Lance’s lips, muscles in his arm tensing slightly as he clenched and unclenched his fist. Shiro got a gut feeling that Lance was antsy filled with bursting energy. He smiled warmly to himself, Lance always was eager to prove himself. This time he would be brushing up his hand-to-hand and learning how to fight in his body.

—

Shiro was impressed, Lance was adapting pretty quickly. It was almost as if he was listening to his body and learning all the cues to take advantage in a fight. Side-step here, sprint over there. He could tell when to dodge or to gain ground. Although he could use some work on his posture to put more power into his punches. Shiro could see how hard Lance was trying to beat Keith but he definitely saw the way Lance would control and restrain the power behind a hit when he managed to catch Keith off guard and was entirely unprepared for it, to keep from seriously hurting him.

Lance quickly understood what Shiro was trying to prepare in for. Since Lance’s body wasn’t readily ‘armed’ (Shiro totally saw how Lance bit his bottom lip to keep from giggling), he offered to let Shiro hold onto his bayard when they went to liberate Mutari. Lance wouldn’t take no for an answer, no matter how much Shiro tried to tell him that he will be fine. Shiro bit back a sigh, he can be so stubborn when he wants to be.

—

Ahh. It was nighttime castle time. Rest was as important as training… and goofing around in his leader’s body. Lance chuckled quietly, his chest light knowing everyone found it as entertaining as he did.

Somehow Lance ended up in Shiro’s room after an embarrassingly long time pondering which room to sleep in. There was a suggestion that they should keep up their current body’s habits so they could slip easily back into routine when this whole mess is settled.

If only sleep would come to him that easily too.

Lance stared hopelessly at the ceiling for what felt like an hour after a long time trying to will himself to sleep. He covered his face face with both hands as he groaned. He was getting tired but something was bothering him, it was at the tip of his tongue.

…Who was he kidding? He knew what was bothering him but it really shouldn’t. He felt alone in own mind. Shiro wasn’t there to share the space. But he had to get used to this, this was how it was and will be when things are normal again. He felt selfish and childish for wanting Shiro’s friendly, warm, constant presence. Lance sighed, trying to remind himself that the presence will still be there along with the others through their paladin bond, just really far compared to how up close the fusion made it feel.

Lance grunted as he sat up. He wasn’t going to get any sleep at this rate. If only he had Pidge’s headphones or his sleep mask. He’d forgotten them back in his room. Was Shiro using them? He didn’t mind – wait! Shiro was uncomfortable with the sleep mask so perhaps he could use it.

Lance grinned to himself pleased as punch that he learned of Shiro’s ninja silent steps. There was hardly a sound coming from him and echoing through the halls as he sneaked through the empty corridors. It had given him quite a scare a few times when it seemed that Shiro appeared out of nowhere while he just wanted to get some water in the middle of the night.

His plan was to lightly knock on the door in case Shiro was still awake so he could simply ask for the mask but if he wasn’t then he’d sneak in and out with the goods silent as a very cool ninja spy.

—

Lance knocked on the door and waited for a bit. There was no response. He took a deep breath to steel his resolve and punched in the access code to his room. The metal door swished open. He looked over the room, squinting to see Shiro asleep in bed and aha! his target right there on the table.

He carefully tiptoed into the room and reached out to get it. He felt his heart stop when he heard a groan from Shiro. Was he waking up? Was he going to get caught? Wow, he was really getting into playing a spy. This was technically his room, he had a right to come back here and take what he needed. That thought calmed him down.

His fears grew into great concern when he turned to see Shiro with his face scrunched up, writhing in bed whimpering and groaning obviously suffering from a nightmare. Lance whispered soft assurances in hopes to ease the nightmare away but it wasn’t working. So he tried to gently wake him up. Shiro’s eyes snapped open and following a short gasp, Shiro swiftly decked him.

Ow ow ow! Lance whined as he gingerly held his face. That hit stung like the devil. Lance didn’t know his body had a mean right hook. He probably should have saw that coming. Shiro was still half-asleep and disoriented from the nightmare and he suddenly woke up to his own face peering down at him. That would make for a strange and terrifying sight. It was just his luck that Shiro chose fight instead of flight.

Shiro was breathing ragged breaths but quickly coming back to his senses, unfortunately piecing together what he’d done. Yup, he was quick to blame himself and began to apologize profusely.

“No, Shiro. It’s ok, really! You don’t have to apologize. It should be me apologizing. I’m sorry I startled you. I was just trying to get my sleep mask but you were having a nightmare and I wanted to help.” Lance asked him for a few minutes while he tried to tolerate the pain. That gave Shiro some time to assess himself and gather his bearings.

Shiro was covered in a cold sweat. He was slightly shaking as dread and fear lingered from a nightmare. They gripped his heart unwilling to let go feeling like an ice-cold hand sinking it’s claws into his very being.

It was a foolish hope to think that being in another body would give him a temporary escape from night terrors. The Galra had scarred him deeply both physically and mentally.

Still, it felt like it had been quite some time since he had a nightmare. The recent nights… had been with Lance. He winced in sympathy as he looked toward Lance who was still hunched over dealing with the pain in his cheek. It hit him just how silent it really was now that they were separated. The younger’s presence had been free-flowing, ever-moving but constant like the ocean. At night he had felt it surround him with warmth. He had felt safe to let his guard down just long enough to easily drift off to sleep.

His body felt heavy and tired agreeing with his desire for rest. But his mind was fighting against it, still shaken and alert after the nightmare.

Shiro didn’t feel up to sleeping but his body was so exhausted dragging down but he was still subconsciously fearing of getting closer to another nightmare.

Lance can tell that something was bothering him. He wanted to help him out, it was best for Shiro to get some rest before their battle. “Shiro, do you want to try something I did for my nieces and nephews when they had nightmares?”

Shiro stared back at Lance for a moment then sighed. He knew Lance wouldn’t try anything funny and if he really needed then he would back off. He nodded. “Ok… Lance!?”

Lance climbed into the bed with him and smiled when he settled on the side near the wall. “Cuddling. Hey now, don’t knock til you try it. I used to do this for my niece and nephew whenever they had a nightmare. Made them feel safer when someone’s with them. Erm, if you really want to, I’ll go if-”

Shiro raised his hand to stop Lance. “It’s ok, Lance. I agreed to at least try.”

Shiro smiled, Lance’s positive energy was infectious when he beamed at him. “Good, now get over here. And look, I’m the perfect size to keep you in a nice big bear hug. You’ll be safe here.”

Shiro huffed a laugh amused and nestled into Lance’s hold.

Lance wanted to do something more for Shiro when he got an idea. He started to softly hum a sweet lullaby his mom used to do for him. It might not have the same effect for Shiro but he technically was in his body so maybe it’ll help relax and lull him to sleep faster. He felt Shiro tense at first, surprised to hear him humming but soon the tension melted away and before he knew it Shiro was asleep.

Lance nuzzled at his hair smiling and whispered, “Sweet dreams, Shiro.” He deserved it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song is 'Faith' from the movie Sing which I saw on netflix and loved and wanted to put it in as I have no control. I just liked those lyrics as I imagine Lance loves all his friends and they love him too. Also the comics mentioned Lance thinking of Hunk as a good friend to sing with and I got a need.
> 
> I haven't replied to a lot of the comments but I read them and I love them so much, Thank You! <3


	7. Chapter 7

As consciousness slowly came back to him, Shiro curled into the soft warmth to his side. He sighed happily, waking up with heart-gripping fear last night really highlighted how peaceful this morning was.

Oh, yeah, Lance offered to help him sleep after waking up last night from a nightmare. He chuckled fondly noticed Lance still cuddling him.

Shiro carefully slipped out of the loose hold without waking the other. To his amusement, Lance grumbled sleepily, weakly trying to reach out to get Shiro back. Eventually, Lance let out a huff, burying his face into the pillow, and quickly fell back into a deeper sleep.

Shiro grabbed clothes to change into deciding to let the younger sleep in while he could before they arrive at the Mutari as thanks for helping him out. He looked back at Lance. They were still stuck in each other’s bodies. Shiro’s sure he doesn’t sleep like that, his own face seem so soft and relaxed unbidden by fears or stress. He hummed to himself tucking Lance in, maybe one day, this war and the traumas the Galra put him through won’t have such a hold on him and he could have more peaceful nights like this one and be as relaxed sleeping in his own body as Lance is.

—

“Lance? Lance, wake up.” There was soft voice trying to gently coax him awake. It was also accompanied by some snickering in another voice, which was hushed by the first. “Pidge! Is that your phone? Are you taking pictures?”

“Lance loves to take lots of naps everywhere hoping to get his sleeping habit to rub off on me. I responded by embarrassing him with pictures of his bed head and sleepy faces.” Pidge was making no effort to hide her giggles.

“But Pidge, he’s in my body. That’s my bed head and face you're getting.” He’s honestly surprised and can only blink helplessly when she bluntly tells him she knows and this just means she has something on him too.

“Wha-” Shiro and Pidge turned swiftly to see Lance almost sit up, leaning heavily on one elbow and blearily rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his other hand. His expression totally soft and the tuft of white hair fluffier than usual. He could hear the tell-tale click of a cell phone camera.

Shiro was thoroughly unamused when Pidge hid the phone before Lance became fully aware. Her canary-eating grin only served to confuse Lance.

Shiro sighed and told Lance to get ready and eat some breakfast as they were a few hours away from Mutari. They have a long day ahead of them.

Once Lance was ready and joined everyone at the control deck, he caught sight of the planet on their screens. A nice mix of white from the clouds in the air and a dusty yellow from the land covered in shifting sands. From the close range monitors he could spot some green patches from vital oases around the city.

—

It’s go time. Everyone was debriefed on their mission. Mutari seemed to have willingly surrendered probably to avoid needless violence but it wasn’t teeming with galra. The Galra wasn’t watching them too closely or visibly oppressing the people. There were a few watch towers to take out then it’ll be liberated.

The paladins were suited up and headed towards their lions. Lance caught a glimpse of Shiro wearing the black paladin armor over his body. It left a bittersweet taste in his mouth. Lance could admit that he thought about what it would be like to be the black paladin, the leader, someone important. He just didn’t think it would happen like this.

Lance shook his head of those thoughts, he had to focus on freeing Mutari. And he could still dream.

The team split up, Keith and Shiro charged ahead on point to attack the main bases while Lance, Hunk, and Pidge picked off any stragglers avoiding causing heavy damage to the city.

It didn’t go as smoothly as they hoped, some building were smashed and there was dark gray smoke rising from several fires in the city. But it seemed the townspeople were handling them.

Shiro opened his mouth to mobilize the team to help put down any immediate dangers in the city when some kind of movement drew his attention. But when he turned he was just looking at sand. Maybe it was nothing, just the wind pushing sand around. But every time he wanted to look away, he got a bad feeling in his gut. Something was down there.

Sand burst everywhere as a gigantic figure jumped out of the ground. Shiro hastily jerked back the controls of the black lion to get out of its way.

Everyone flinched at the metallic screech coming from the giant bird-like creature that had suddenly shot out of the ground seemingly awoken by their fight with the Galra. As everyone eyed the creature, the tense silence only made its slow wingbeats seem more prominent and powerful. It’s body was made from some kind of rusty metal. Lance swallowed thickly as he looked over the strange ridges that ran along the wings and body, the patterns they formed looked eerily like an avian skeleton.

Keith was the first to charge in for an attack, the rust color and it’s slow movements made it seem like an easy target weakened by the sands of time. But it was way faster than he thought, easily moving out of the way of his heat ray. Keith barely had any time to react as it released an amber-colored energy blast from its beak.

“Keith, look out!” The blue lion managed to get in front of the red lion before the blast hit him. Blue took the brunt of the attack smashing into the red lion sending both hurtling back. They displaced a ton of sand when they crashed into the ground.

“Keith, you ok?” Lance asked while gingerly holding his head.

He heard the red paladin groan before a pained reply, “yeah.”

Keith was about to ask for Lance’s status in return but he gasped at a shockingly familiar sight. “Lance, look!”

“What is it? – no way!” Lance watched the troublesome bird monster as the others flew around and tried to land a hit on it but was equally shocked when he turned to find a boulder-sized glowing amber crystal in front of them.

The rusty, metallic bird was a fusion!

An idea quickly taking shape in Lance’s mind. He tried to move Blue but the blast really did a number on her, she was hardly responding, bursts of electricity stuttering her movements. “Hey Keith, is Red good to go?”

He saw the Red lion get back on its legs. “Yeah. What do you have in mind?”

“Well, remember in Coran’s first tests with the fusion? Destroying the crystal ended up destroying the fusion, so it should do the same for that bird. But we should draw it far away from the city first in case there’s a violent explosion. I’ll update the others.”

“Got it.” Keith picked up the large amber crystal in the Red lion’s mouth and took off into the air. He fired a pot shot from his lion’s tail. Of course, the bird dodged it without difficulty and turned its attention to Keith but more importantly, the amber crystal.

It screeched angrily and started to chase after the Red lion who was fast enough to keep ahead of it. Keith swerved to and fro to dodge the blasts from the metallic creature.

Hunk went down to Blue to aid Lance meanwhile Shiro and Pidge were following behind the metal bird and Keith, thrusters on full power trying to keep up. Keith tossed the crystal high into the air while still flying forward to gain some distance. The bird hovered in place waiting for the crystal to fall back down to it. Shiro, Keith, and Pidge fired all at once at the crystal, obliterating it.

There was a blinding light accompanied by an ear-splitting screech. They gasped when the light faded and they saw the skeleton of a giant bird fall along with torn-up rusty sheets of metal and wires.

—

Hunk helped tow the Blue lion back to the castle. Lance hitched a ride with him in Yellow as he rejoined the others on their way to the city which was on a rocky stable surface instead of loose sand.

Shiro thought back to the previous planet they landed on, Lance had gotten surprisingly useful info from Lamura, the local caretaker of a zoo. So he ordered Lance and Hunk to aid the scaly, dragon-esque townspeople wherever needed and keep an ear on the ground for any clues that could lead them to the ancient ruins.

Whereas he, Keith, and Pidge will meet with the queen, Mistletein. Allura was unable to get a clear explanation as to why the Mutarians surrendered. But there could be a number of reasonable explanations for that such as to keep bloodshed to a minimum or they were vastly outnumbered and that was the safest option for her people. She also noted that she seemed a bit apprehensive to meet the paladins for some reason.

Shiro hunched his shoulders unconsciously as they walked towards the main tower in the northern part of the city. It seems Lance’s body was exceptional at reading others body language. Unfortunately, most of what he was seeing; narrowed eyes and tight faces gave him a gut feeling that these people were pretty suspicious of him. Although some lessened their stares and become hesitant when they didn’t find what they were looking for.

—

The queen growled softly as she bowed to the paladins, the rumbling was not that she saw them as threats but to simply acknowledge them. Her polished, shiny red scales spoke volumes for her regal status. Queen Mistletein thanked them for freeing her planet from the Galra. The paladins were surprised when she expressed her concerns about the monster bird, she had no idea where it could have come from. Pidge suggested that maybe the noise from fighting the Galra woke it up.

The green paladin leaned close to Shiro whispering, “maybe this also means they aren’t totally aware of the ancient civilization Coran talked about. We’ll probably have to look for it ourselves with the queen’s permission.” Shiro nodded in agreement. Coran did say someone found ancient ruins but it has been 10,000 years, kingdoms would’ve rise and fall and clear leads on any ruins could have been lost.

Shiro glanced at Keith and found that he was glaring at the queen. He was about to tell him to stop but noticed that she was intensely staring at them too. It took all of Shiro’s restraint to keep from tensing when he could feel her intense stare drilling holes into him. Shiro raised a brow when the queen tilted her head in confusion much like some of the other citizens. “Yes? Is there something the matter, your majesty?”

She flinched, clearly caught off guard seemingly embarrassed. “I– I apologize if this might come off as rude or offensive but is the black paladin not the… champion? You do not look like him. I just wanted to confirm some things. We’ve never encountered your kind before and there were rumors that the paladins are of the same people as the champion.”

Shiro recoiled eyes wide, he could hear Keith growl angrily beside him not liking the potentially bad ways this could end. He swallowed steeling himself, afraid of what he might hear but bravely going forward. “Why? How do you know about the champion?”

As they had guessed, massive ships had once invaded the sky. The sheer number of robot drones and sentries, that display of strength made it seem like a hopeless battle. The king and queen surrendered trying to avoid anything from happening to their people.

However, they didn’t bow their heads in complete submission. They would try to not bend to Galra rule as much as they could without drawing significant attention. Silently resist their will.

The Galra seemed to have predicted this and to make an example them the punishment for resisting they took the king and some random citizens to be prepped for the arena. Apparently, they looked fierce enough to put on a good show against their popular champion. In a fight to the death.

“The champion killed the king and the others for the entertainment of the Empire.” The queen stated a hint of bitterness in her voice. But she seemed to have caught herself and took in a deep breath. “I am sorry. I still miss him.”

Pidge looked worriedly at Shiro who was so tense he was shaking while pointedly looking at the ground. He was obviously struggling to accept he might’ve killed innocent prisoners even if he had no choice. “Shiro… maybe there’s a misunderstanding somewhere…” She remembered how devastated he looked when he thought he hurt Matt before his memory came back.

A heavy, awkward silence settled on top of them. Only to be broken suddenly when Hunk started yelling in their comms asking if anyone can hear him.

Hunk was panting hard trying to catch his breath.

Shiro swallowed down his raging storm of emotions for now. “Hunk, deep breaths. What happened? Are you ok?”

Hunk breathlessly tried to answer, “Strangers.. fighting.. Reckless..” He slowed down, lungs no longer burning, to give a clearer answer, “They jammed our comms… started fighting us but really focused on Lance… they were reckless, bystanders were starting to get in the crossfire. Lance said to split up and find you guys or to get back into contact with you while he led the angry Mutarians to an emptier place. The jamming signal stopped and I can speak with you guys but I still can’t get into contact with Lance. I– I think he’s in trouble.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about how interesting it would be for Shiro to have a infamous reputation being the champion and all and receiving some hostility because of it since rumors and war can be messy like that. 
> 
> Also sorry for the delay, been stressing about job interviews. Future chapter might be slow since I'll work on them whenever I have extra time.


	8. Chapter 8

Suddenly, a guard quickly rushed to the queen whispering some news to her. Her face schooled into a grim expression. 

The queen sighed looking ashamed as she turned to the paladins. “There are reports of a trail of disturbances leading to the east side of town caused by some of my people chasing a paladin. They might lead to your friend. …I am truly sorry, my people lost their king to one of your kind and fear can drive a few to do rash and terrible things. I hope the actions of a few will not dissuade from our talks for an alliance with Voltron.”

The paladins gasped as she bowed to show how truly sorry she was. Then as she stood up there was a fierce fire behind her eyes. “But these actions will not be tolerated against our guests. And their actions threatens the safety of my citizens as well. Find them.” She tilted her head to a few other guards in the room. They stomped once and stood straighter for a moment then left with the initial guard.

“Your Majesty, please excuse us but we–”

“No need to explain, we can continue once all of your team is safely accounted for.”

“Thank you, your majesty.” Shiro bowed quickly then turned on a heel signaling the others to follow him.

“Hunk! You’re ok!” Shiro smiled as he saw the yellow paladin making his way towards them as they exited the queen’s tower.

“Guys!” Hunk waved back at them. His armor had some scratches and dings but thankfully he was mostly unharmed. He frowned to himself and sighed dejectedly, “I still can’t get into contact with Lance or track his armor.”

Shiro laid a hand on Hunk’s shoulder, “Don’t worry Hunk, we’ll find him. The queen said that there were a trail of disturbances leading east so Lance must be around there.”

He nodded to his team and they started towards the eastern edge of town. Right now Shiro thought it was best to stick together so no one might get picked off alone like Lance. Thinking about getting the lions had its problems too, they were parked far away and they had a battle near the city recently so it might scare some into thinking the galra was back or other dangers.

As they came closer to the east side of the city, Shiro grimaced as he heard a faint rumbling sound like that of quiet thunder. His mind shuffling to bad scenarios such as explosions or building crumbling.

Shiro frowned to himself as he kept running forward. He couldn’t help but overhear the whispers of the people huddling outside near their homes curious but cautious. _It was him! I saw him! The champion! He really is a paladin! Is he the cause of all this ruckus?_

Lance… Shiro hoped he was ok. Did the Mutarians really dislike him so much?

“Paladins!” Shiro and the team skidded to a stop, spotting an elderly Mutarian hobbling excitedly towards them.

“Uh, yes ma’am, anything we could do for you?” Shiro asked meeting her halfway so she doesn’t exhaust herself. Now that he got a closer look at her she was holding something blue, dented but incredibly familiar.

She held it out to give to him and said, “Your paladin friend, the champion, he saved me!” Her eyes glittering in thanks causing Shiro to gasp, this was the first anyone has referred to ‘the champion’ positively rather than with malcontentment or confusion.

Her face dropped a little, “The troublemakers were making a big mess of things. Caused parts of building to fall, one almost crushed me then the champion used his own body to protect me! The block smashed right into his back. But… I’m afraid he lost part of his wing to do so. I’m sorry…”

Wing? He knew for sure Lance or his body for that matter didn’t have wings. Shiro took the item from the friendly old lady. Oh! It was one of the jetpack thrusters from the paladin armor!

“Lance! He was here!” Hunk gasped taking the broken armor piece.

“Lance? Is that the champion’s name?”

“Uh… y-no? it’s complicated. Uh, we’ll introduce you properly when we find him.” Shiro weakly explained getting ready to keep going eastward. “But I’m sure he’ll be relieved to know your ok.”

—

“Black paladin!” Another citizen called. “The blue paladin, he was being chased by these hooligans, that way. Please tell him he has my gratitude. He protected my little one.” There was a little Mutarian whelpling hiding behind his father.

“Oh, thank you. We’ll be sure to tell him.” Shiro bowed a fond smile on his face learning of Lance’s kind deeds he’s been doing even when he was in trouble.

“Be careful, the hooligans were using these,” The Mutarian showed them a long, wooden dart which he promptly snapped in two in his claws. “They use banned tranq-venom. It numbs mind and body. It makes victims highly susceptible to suggestion, believing and following what is told or shown to them while numbing sensations like pain. I’m afraid your teammate may have gotten hit by one while protecting my little one.” His son whimpered and nodded his head.

—

“Heh, guess Lance is doing his part to give you a good name.” Hunk joked weakly. “What? It’s kinda true. And I needed to say something, it’s getting too tense.”

“Shouldn’t we tell someone the champion isn’t who they think he is?” Keith asked.

“I think it’ll be easier to explain with both Shiro and Lance present.” Pidge said.

Shiro sighed inwardly, Lance shouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. He shouldn’t be putting in a good name for him even if it was just Lance being Lance and helping people in need. It should have been him. Lance was getting into all this trouble cause he’s in his body.

Shiro shook his head, no time to mope now. Lance needed their help.

Shiro stopped suddenly and held his ground as everyone bumped into him. “Everyone, look!” Up ahead was a large sinkhole almost as wide as the black lion’s paw and seemed to go on forever. Buildings near it showed signs of damage, pieces of rubble falling off. There was a rock spire that was tipping forth dangerously like the famous leaning tower in Italy. If it fell it looked like it would fall right on top of the sinkhole, covering it.

Close to the sinkhole’s edge were the guards and several kneeling and bound Mutarians in their custody.

“It’s them!” Hunk confirmed pointing to the suspects, “They’re the ones who attacked me and Lance!”

“Come on, let’s go.” Shiro gestured for his team to follow.

“Paladins!” A guard greeted them. “These are the ones who chased your comrade proclaiming that he’s the champion.”

Another guard leaned in to whisper to the black paladin, “That one in the cloak, the leader, is Penentaria the wife a council who lost their life to the champion. She might have acted out in revenge for her beloved.”

For someone who was bent on revenge she seemed melancholy now.

“He…”

All the guards instantly tensed, weapons at the ready in case she tried anything funny.

“He saved me… the champion… even when I tried to– to…” She turned slightly to glance at the sinkhole. “I almost fell but he dived in to throw back up to safety. He– I saw– his wings were broken but still he dived in…to save me.”

Shiro exhaled through his nose, of course Lance would. They were close but still so far in finding him.

“Lance is down there!?” Shiro and Keith pulled at Hunk’s collar before he could get near the sinkhole’s edge, the unstable, crumbling edge. “Guys! We have to go down there! We have to see if he’s ok!”

Shiro turned to face Hunk who looks worried beyond belief. “I know you’re worried so am I, but we should be prepared. We don’t know if Lance is still there where he should have fallen or got up to try and find a way out. We don’t know what’s down there.”

Shiro looked to the team to give orders, “Pidge get Green and a BLIP sensor in case we need it, Hunk, Keith your with me and we’ll–” Shiro gasped at his interruption.

A siren, ominously wailing high and low just like a tornado warning started to echo through the city. The Mutarians were suddenly riled up running to and fro to their homes. All while chattering about something… electric sand storm?

To make matters worse, a thunderous crashing sound cut through the chaos coming from the spire. Slowly with its own weight and gravity tipping it further, it was going to fall. Fall onto and block the sinkhole, their only path to Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The team learns a little of what Lance has been through and more trouble pops up.


	9. Chapter 9

Someone in the crowd seemed to notice the falling spire yelling and pointing it out to everyone. It was starting to stir up a panic. Not helpful in the slightest.

“Uh,” Hunk asked a guard, a hand raised meekly, “what’s this about an ‘electric sandstorm’? Is it dangerous? Who am I kidding it is, isn’t it? Do you have any countermeasure for it like a shelter?”

“They are unpredictable at best. The sand can be blinding, you will hardly be able to see your hand in front of your face. The lightning strikes can be violent and deadly. Normally it’s no issue in the safety of our city,” The guard with dull green scales pointed to spire, “The lightning would hit the spire instead. There are 5 spires, each protecting one of the four corners and the central area of the city.”

“So they’re like a giant lighting rods.” Pidge summarized to herself.

“I don’t think that spire will last long enough to stay upright before the storm let alone survive through it.” Shiro looked worryingly at the unstable structure then toward the horizon where a small blur could be seen in the distance.

“Hey!” Shiro called out to the green scaled guard, “do you guys have anything else that can protect everyone from the storm? And is there any way get these people’s attention?” His first priority right now was to get the citizens to stop panicking then get them to safety.

“We can get a different siren running. It’ll signal everyone to get to the public shelters or their own personal shelters. Hopefully most of the designated shelters didn’t fall in your fight to liberate us from the Galra. We need to get to the base of the sirens and pull the blue lever.”

As for another way to deal with the storm, the green scaled guard closed his eyes for a moment thinking something through before nodding to himself. “The Dwasfan. If we can get it set up it should get us through this.

“Dwasfan?” Pidge asked.

“It’s a network of miniature spires readily kept throughout any section of the city. It’s hidden in the ground then rises up when we need it. It’s not perfect, not every part of the city gets protected so there is damage whenever we have to count on it. And it needs repair often. I must go to the Operations HQ to get it running. The Galra cleared that area out and based some of their sentries to guard it.”

“Alright Keith, you’re the fastest, go and pull the blue lever to switch the siren. Then if you can, help the guards direct the people to shelters and evacuate this area. Pidge go clear out the HQ if you need to and help set up the Dwasfan, I’m not sure how it’ll work but I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.” The red and green paladins nodded and sped off in different directions.

“Hunk, you’re with me. We’ll jump down the sinkhole and try to find Lance and get out before the spire–”

Another thunderous boom echoed from the spire. It’s damaged base no longer able to balance the giant structure. They grimaced, heart stopping as it tipped forward slowly. It’s shadow looming and darkening as it got closer to the ground like a hulking beast closing in on prey paralyzed with fear.

“Hunk, change of plans! Go and get your lion. You’ll be able to move the spire or dig us another way out with Yellow. I’ll go down and make sure Lance is safe. Go Hunk, I’m counting on you!”

He heard Hunk’s rapid footsteps as he hurried to his lion. Shiro was facing the sinkhole, he ran towards the edge then dove right in.

It was a long way down. Each second falling filled him with worry, it meant a longer and more dangerous fall for Lance. And his jet pack was damaged too. Would he even be able to survive a fall like this? Shiro shook his head, no use thinking about it. He braced himself as he saw the ground closing in. He activated his jet pack and landed gracefully on the floor littered with stone and sand.

“Lance!” Shiro called out while using his gauntlet to provide light like a flashlight. For some reason there was a tint of dim amber light as well. With just his tiny source of light it was still really dark but from what he could tell of his immediate surroundings, he was in a large hallway of some sort. Two walls on either side and two paths that seemed to go on endlessly. The BLIP tech could’ve been handy here.

As he waved his flashlight around to check his surroundings, his eyes caught something blue. Lance’s helmet! Shiro rushed over picking it up and calling out for him again, “Lance! Lance, are you here?” He searched behind rocks and combed through the sand but the blue paladin was nowhere to be found.

There were subdued rumbles that shook the ground beneath him. Oh no! He had to get out there now! And Shiro made a break for it, sprinting down one path when a sudden violent shaking caused him to stumble and fall. Stones quickly crashed down from above blocking his access to the sinkhole. Shiro’s light turned off and he activated helmet to keep out the dust that came flying.

Even when all the shaking stopped he could still feel it in his bones. He used a wall to support himself as he struggled to get up.

The amber light it was still here. It was coming from the walls, dim lines of amber light streaked across the walls not entirely all the way down the hall but only near him and trailing back to the pile of rubble where he had been just a few dobashes before. Shiro traced the lines on the wall with his hand. The color of the light was familiar, where had he seen it before?

The amber crystal! He took out a small pouch Coran had given him earlier when he let Lance sleep in. He took out a small piece of a crystal Coran had cut for them. It glowed with a similar light. Its energy must be resonating with the crystals he assumed to be fitted into the walls. He put away the crystal and picked up Lance’s helmet that he dropped.

This must be it. The ruins they were searching for, right under their noses. But they’ll explore it more thoroughly after he find Lance.

Shiro turned his flashlight back on looking back at the rubble behind him. He couldn’t go back so all he had was to go forward.

Lance… was he ok? Where was he? He activated his visor to see if he it could track Lance’s armor.

Shiro gasped as he heard a ping. A ray of hope releasing some weight off his shoulders. He didn’t have a map so Lance’s  location seemed quite some distance away and angled towards to the left of the hallway straight through the wall.

“Shiro!?” Keith’s voice rang through the comms desperately worried.

“I’m okay, I found Lance’s location. I’m going to get him. Make sure the people are safe on your end. And also get yourself to safety when the storm hits.” Shiro instructs and then began to move forward.

…This place… it’s like a maze. Completely frustrating. Every time Shiro thinks he’s getting closer to Lance he’s forced to take a turn to the opposite direction. At least the amber glow on the wall stayed lit. It would show where he’s been.

Little by little however, he was getting closer to Lance. The way that halls now lead to empty rooms instead of more endless paths made him feel uneasy but Shiro pushed forward.

Then Shiro’s visor indicated that Lance was in the next room to the left. He quickened his pace, sand flying all over from his steps. He slid to a stop right in front of the entrance taking a quick glance around the room to find Lance. Shiro sighed heavily in relief at seeing his own body propped up on a wall fully unconscious. He found him, at last.

 _How did he get all the way here though?_ Shiro wondered as looked Lance over for injuries. He used the mini scanner in his gauntlet to check for internal injuries as well.

Shiro wrapped some bandages around Lance’s head. No doubt he had some kind of concussion from that fall. The scanners showed he had a few cracked ribs. There were some wooden darts sticking out of his arm. Shiro plucked those out for him. He treated the bad burn, it looked like a blast from a laser gun, on his left leg lifting it gently to wrap in bandages. Also on the same leg, his ankle was sprained most likely from the fall. Shiro was glad the first aid kit in their armor included an ice pack. He placed it on Lance’s ankle to control the swelling for now then he’ll wrap it later.

After he was done treating Lance, Shiro sat back and looked him over. He reached out to softly pet his head. The poor kid’s been through a lot. Shiro nodded to himself, determined to get Lance proper treatment, and opened the comms to report to the team.

“Everyone, I found Lance. Hunk, the spire fell and blocked the exit so tell me when you’re in your lion to coordinate an escape route. …Guys?” Instead of the reassuring sounds of his team, he was met with only static.

“…Pidge, Keith? What’s the status up there?” Still no response.

Hmm. The electric sandstorm! It must be right on top of them now. It must be causing interference.

Shiro thought about waiting out the with Lance. But how long would the storm last? And Lance was in no shape to carelessly move him around looking for an exit.

“Meh…” A small groan startled Shiro out of his musings. Shiro looked over to see his face scrunching up, a sign that Lance was waking up.

Lance lifted his head, his gaze a little unfocused but took in the form in front of him. “Me? Whoa, in black paladin armor?”

“What? No it’s Shiro–” Shiro bit his lip to stop himself.

Shiro thought it’d be best to play along with whatever Lance would say to keep him awake, still, and to not stress him out. Lance was definitely hit with those poisoned darts so he’ll be numb to the pain of his injuries but he’ll be more likely to move and accidentally worsen his injuries. He’ll be disoriented from the fall too. Not to mention all the injuries he sustained.

“Shiro?” Shiro’s eyebrows rose, giving his full attention to him.

Lance’s face scrunched up again trying hard to organize jumbled thoughts and said, “Shiro… is safe. He– he should be talking with the queen, I think?”

Shiro deflated a bit at that. Lance thought he was back with the queen.

“Good, that’s good right? I think the lady had some kinda grudge against him. Yeah… it’s better she didn’t get to him, better me than him. But I think they should talk when she’s calmer.”

Shiro’s heart sank, Lance wanted him safe from Penentaria’s ire even if it meant getting hurt in his stead. And he didn’t hold a grudge against her either. “Lance…”

“Yes?” He tilted his head in askance.

Shiro sighed, he’ll scold him later and tell him that he shouldn’t be taking bullets for him. For now he asked, “Lance, do you know how you got here?”

Lance confused Shiro greatly when he smiled and said, “Mr. tall, silent and built like a rock!”

Wha– what did that mean? “I– are you sure?” Shiro stammered.

“Yup! He was really nice, he escorted me over here. He was glowy too.”

Lance seemed adamant that someone helped him to this room. It could just be Lance’s imagination messing with him. Or… someone else was here living in these ruins. Shiro tensed at the thought, who would be down here and were they friend or foe?

Shiro turned to look at the entrance, the uneasy feeling coming back. His breath caught as these empty rooms reminded him of the small prison cells from the galra ships. Was the escort some kinda ancient guard and put Lance here to keep him prisoner for trespassing? He’s glad that time took its toll on this place as there didn’t seem to be any functioning door or locking system left.

Lance eyed the strange likeness before him. He didn’t know where he came from but he could admit it’s calming not being alone. But this fellow seemed stressed out judging from his tight face and hunched shoulders. He had to try and keep positive to reassure him. “I just gotta wait here till good old Hunk tells the others and they’ll find me. I know they will.”

Lance looked at him with this peaceful, hopeful face that even got him to relax his shoulders. “…You really believed in us– er, them, huh?

“Yea! Hunk’s an amazing mechanic and really pulls through when he’s past being scared. Pidge is a wiz with tech stuff and she’s got lots of determination to keep fighting. Keith’s a really great pilot, expertly swerving through asteroid fields even at top speed. Really wish I could pull that kinda stuff off too. And there’s Shiro, our awesome leader; an ace pilot from the garrison and great at directing us to get the job done. He’s my hero.” Lance was happy to talk about his amazing friends to this lookalike.

Shiro smiled ruefully, his heart squeezing at how highly Lance thought about everyone. “Shiro is… not that perfect.” It was easier to admit it to Lance this way, indirectly while he wasn’t totally coherent. He’s not sure if he could readily break that hero image Lance has of him if he was talking to him face to face. He was also thinking about earlier when he was told he killed innocent people in the arena and couldn’t even remember their faces.

The Galra, they must’ve done something to him to have a control over him to force him to do terrible things. And he tries to keep the undaunting leader front to steady his team. The fear of not knowing what exactly and the pressure of leadership got overwhelming sometimes.

Shiro didn’t know he was crying till Lance reached out to wipe the tears trailing down his face. The tears of frustration welling up easily from Lance’s body. He mentally berated himself for not having better control of his emotions.

“Are you okay? What do you mean?” His voice was a soft whisper.

“Shiro… can make mistakes too. Ones with terrible consequences because of how many people depend on him, on Voltron. Even if he was forced, it’s still his actions. He’s changed from his time with the Galra, it’s made him less human.” Shiro bit his lip. He didn’t want to say that they turned him into a weapon, he didn’t want to accept it by saying it out loud. “You shouldn’t put him on a high pedestal. You’ll only get disappointed in the end.”

“It’s okay if he makes mistakes, we’ll be there for him. He can count on his team. Also, changing, _growing_ , erring, all that means he’s all the more human.” He held Shiro’s face in his hand tracing soothing circles on his cheek.

“Lance…” Shiro leaned into his hand. Just like before, Lance was comforting and gently reminding him that he wasn’t alone.

Part of him didn’t want to burden the younger paladins with his issues. He didn’t want to seem weak in their eyes. And they… they wouldn’t understand what he’s been through. No one should go through the pain he’s going through. But then he’d be more isolated than ever. He just didn’t know what he wanted and it left his heart aching.

His distress must’ve been evident on his face because the next thing he knew Lance was pulling him into a hug.

“Some mistakes shouldn’t be feared, they help you grow if you learn to get past them and learn from them. I believe in Shiro. He’s stronger than you give him credit for and I believe things will turn out ok for him.”

Shiro hugged him back as much as he could while still minding his injuries.

“Hmm… and if Shiro has trouble talking about personal stuff then when we fuse again to sort ourselves out, I’ll be able to feel his emotions strongly again. And if he’ll let me, I could feel his hurt, his pain so I can understand it a little better. There doesn’t have to be words just strong, valid emotions. ‘Cause that’s all what anyone wants sometimes right? Someone who understands. And sometimes it’ll be hard to put that into words and that’s okay. Do you think Shiro will be okay with that?”

That got the tears to start spilling again. Shiro was so touched at how much Lance would go through to try and understand him. Lance always was a supportive people person, doing his best to make everyone happy. He buried his face against Lance’s shoulder failing at stifling his sniffles and hiccups. "...Yeah, he'd like that."

They sat there embracing and taking comfort in each others presence. Then Shiro felt Lance sag more heavily on top of him. “Lance, no, please, stay awake! You got to stay awake!” He whispered urgently.

“Mmmm… s–sorry, I’m just so sleepy. Just want to… rest my eyes.” Lance mumbled before falling unconscious once more.

No! Shiro squeezed his eyes shut. He wished there was something more he could do!

The crystal in his pocket, unbeknownst to him, started glowing brighter and brighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D you know what's coming up.
> 
> you know how Haggar taunted shiro while using his face in the end of season 1? i tried for the opposite: shiro kinda/sorta getting a pep talk from his own reflection even if its a drugged lance not really knowing whats going on but supporting him anyway. hope its not too confusing >.<''


End file.
